The Three Oracles
by brown phantom
Summary: LinkxRomani. Sequel to "Trapped in Termina." Link is finally able to leave Termina, but before he can return to Hyrule, he has to save the three oracles first. At least he won't be alone. Based on OoS, OoA, and mentions of other games.
1. Welcome to Holodrum

_I don't own Legend of Zelda. If I did the games would tie in together better and there would be a few different ones added in._

_This is the sequel to 'Trapped in Termina'. Don't read this without reading that one first, otherwise this won't make any sense to you. Sure, I give a rough summary of everything that happened before the start of this, but still actually reading the first part would be better. For the record, this fic will incorporate elements of both the games and the mangas but will still have some parts original to me. Best way I can make it work. Enjoy and please review._

Part One: Oracle of Seasons

Chapter One: Welcome to Holodrum

Link of Hyrule had done many things in his life one would not have expected of him originally. He was the first amongst the Kokiri to try and leave the forest in who knows how long, he had saved the entire Goron race from starvation, and had saved a Zora princess from being digested by her own guardian. And that had all happened while he was ten years old. Then he did more impossible things, like time travel and going from one corner of Hyrule to another within a year to save six people, most of which he already knew. All of this in order to save the country from a tyrant. And when he succeeded, he got the chance to live his life normally again.

Sadly fate had other ideas for the young boy and gave him another job to do. Circumstances forced Link to leave Hyrule and go to a different country called Termina, which had only three days left to live when he got there. In that time he had to detoxify a sickened swamp, thaw a frozen mountain range, calm an irate ocean, and cleanse a cursed canyon, all while lending a hand to the people in the central town. It was tough but he did it all, and he thought he would be able to leave and go home when he finished, but fate wasn't done with him just yet.

Unable to return home for a set number of years, Link had to find a new one in Termina. He found one at the Romani Ranch with the two occupants Cremia and Romani. For four years he lived with them and enjoyed himself, and even helped Romani learn to be a warrior herself. Then when the two were fourteen, another disaster struck the country. Link went into action yet again, but this time with a partner. The two won their battles but lost Cremia and their home in the end. And if that wasn't bad enough, three goddesses told the two that they had three more jobs to do before Link could finally return to his home country.

As you could imagine, Link did not sleep well that night.

When dawn finally came, Link started waking up but tried to fight it off a little longer. Lucky for him he felt nothing more than the sunlight trying to wake him up right then anyway. Romani was still sleeping next to him and Tatl wasn't trying to coax him awake, like Navi used to sometimes. So with no disturbances, he just laid there under the blanket with his eyes closed.

'I don't wanna get up. I mean, Romani and I just spent several weeks traveling the country and fighting monsters and we even lost Cremia at the end. And now we gotta do the same thing in three more countries until I'm 18? Starting today? After this I ought to retire from the hero business and try something less eventful.'

Without really trying to, Link slowly opened his eyes. He caught this and tried to close them again, but he knew it was a futile effort now. One habit he had been forced to learn while living on Romani Ranch for four years was that when you woke you, you stayed awake. So he settled for yawning and sitting up while stretching his arms, careful not to disturb the young girl right next to him.

When Link actually looked at the area around him, he noticed something was really wrong. Even with the buildings turned into rubble, Link would recognize Romani Ranch anywhere, and this definitely wasn't the ranch. For one thing, the ranch was surrounded on all sides by trees, not one side water and the other side open valley.

Link stood up and tried to get his bearings. He was next to some kind of lake that looked about the size of Lake Hylia if he had to compare it to something. Romani was still sleeping where he had been, which was about five meters from the shore. Judging from the position of the sun, they were on the eastern shore, and everything to the east was flat grassland with some scattered trees. The other side of the lake looked like it had more trees. And in the center of the lake was an island with a wooden bridge to it that connected to land almost right next to them.

Link sighed and looked up at the sky. "Y'know, when you three said you wanted us to get started today, I kinda thought you would have had the courtesy to let us know before you did anything." He then turned to look at his red-headed partner and friend. "Wonder how I'm gonna tell her we're not in Termina anymore. The blunt way sounds so wrong."

He let her keep sleeping, but Romani later woke up much like he did. When she saw they weren't at the ranch they fell asleep at last night, she knew something was up. "Any idea what's going on here, Grasshopper?"

"Well, just a guess, but I'd say that the three goddesses didn't want to wait until we woke up to get started on our next job." Link told her.

"So... we were warped to some other country last night?" Romani asked as she looked around again, then realized something was missing. "Hey, where are Tael and Tatl?"

Link noticed the two fairies were absent and looked over the area too for them. "I don't know. Tatl? Tael?" He shouted out for them but got no reply. "Maybe they weren't brought with us."

"So it's just you and me alone in another country?" Romani asked, then smiled. "Great. No supervision this time. We can do whatever we want Grasshopper?"

Link arched an eyebrow. "Did you have something specific in mind Ladybug?" He tried to ignore some more mature thoughts that came up with that statement, and sat down to avoid having any natural reactions be visible.

Romani blushed and brushed some hair out of her face. "Not exactly. Not yet anyway." She said, covering the fact that she had the same thoughts herself. They were both about fifteen years old and quite close to one another. It was only natural they thought such things about the other. Especially since both loved the other but had yet to admit it.

Romani took a deep breath and stood up, flexing her legs. "So, any idea what we should do for now?"

Link stood up with her and helped her put away their blanket. "Well, the first thing we oughta do is try to find a village. Or at least a suitable campsite where we can get food and water."

Romani glanced over the lake. "I don't think we need to worry on the water part Link. And I'm sure there's something edible nearby. After all, why would the goddesses put us in a foreign spot that wouldn't be able to help us? Surely they at least had the decency to do that."

"Here's hoping, and don't call me Shirley." Link joked, making Romani chuckle.

With that, the two young warriors got started on their first day in a new land, wondering how long it would be until they were called to battle again.


	2. The Armored Threat

_I don't own Legend of Zelda. If I did the games would tie in together better and there would be a few different ones added in._

Part One: Oracle of Seasons

Chapter Two: The Armored Threat

It had been four days that Link and Romani had been in this new land. If they remembered correctly, they were currently in a country called Holodrum, which was about the size of Termina but not as specialized geographically. According to the map of the known continent they had, Holodrum was southeast of Termina, just on the other side of Woodfall Swamp. Link still was upset to find that Termina and Hyrule were on the same continent when for the past few years he believed they were in separate realms. Turns out that the only thing separating Hyrule and Termina was a large desert and a few countries south of them. In all the time he thought he was trapped he could have just ridden Epona home. But then again, he never would have gotten attached to Romani if he had. So he didn't dwell on it.

_(I know this goes against the canon rules of the zeldaverse geography, but I've always felt that Hyrule, Termina, Holodrum, and Labrynna look somewhat connected whenever I saw their maps. So I decided for this story they were. After all, this is fanfic, meaning I don't have to follow canon rules.)_

According to their map of just Holodrum, the two had arrived next to a place called Eyeglass Lake, named for its shape. The two had been staying there trying to get a feel of the area before leaving, since it was a central location thus likely one they'd revisit a few times. Plus, no threats had made themselves obvious yet. The two had just recently fought several tough foes and lost a loved one. They needed a break to just unwind and mourn Cremia. Romani kept crying herself to sleep each night so far and Link soothed her as best he could. She missed her sister, but was overjoyed the green-clad young man she adored was still with her.

On the fourth day, they decided they had rested here enough. "So... shall we go to one of the towns around here? It's a little hot to be staying outside all day." Romani asked. According to the map, there was a small village, or at least smaller than Clocktown, named Horon south of here by Holodrum's southern shore, and another village northeast of here called Sunken City by some mountains and a river.

"What do we do when we're there? We can't just go up to people and ask if they've seen anything suspicious. They'll think we're up to something." Link told her.

"Wasn't that what you did when you explored Termina, trying to find out what needed to be done?"

"Not like that. Most of the time I just overheard idle chatter but sometimes a person would talk directly to me if I was nearby. I rarely actually went up to someone and questioned them."

"Well, I guess we just do the same here. Got any better ideas?" Romani asked.

Link shrugged. "Nope, none. I guess we should just do what you say then."

"Good boy. Maybe you'll get a treat later." She teased him like he was a dog, making him groan. "Why don't we try this Horon place first? Looks closer."

"Sounds fine to me."

The two packed up all their stuff that was out at the moment and walked around the lake. At their position, they had to walk all the way to the other side in order to get to the route to Horon. It wasn't a completely uneventful walk though, as there were octoroks and guays in the area that would frequently try something. Link never understood why these creatures always attacked right away and only if you were close to them. Best he could figure was that they were quite territorial and fought off anything, even if they saw many others of their own kind fall before themselves. Now these were no threat to either teens, but it sure got tiresome getting rid of them over and over again.

'Y'know, I know I should be enjoying this break from big battles, but I wish we had something better to fight than wild animals.' Link grumpily thought. When they reached a road that went from north to south and head south, they heard the sound of trotting behind them. They turned to see what was approached, and Link frowned. 'Me and my big mouth.'

Coming up towards them were two armored horses with equally armored riders. There was another armored man but he was walking instead, and judging by the size of his armor he was the biggest and toughest of the trio. He also looked like an Iron Knuckle with a pointed helmet, while the other two looked like ordinary knights. No weapons could be seen, not even sheaths, but one didn't walk around in armor for the fun of it. Whoever these guys were, they could fight and were prepared for it.

"What should we do?" Romani whispered.

"We should probably not get involved with this. I don't like the vibe I'm getting from them, but just attacking them may be a bad idea. For all we know, they could work for whoever's in charge of this country." Link whispered back. The whole time, the two teens just stood there, unintentionally allowing the armored troupe to get closer.

The armored guys came to a stop by them. "And what are you two doing out here in the middle of nowhere." It sounded more like an interrogation than a casual question.

"Just minding our own business trying to get to a town." Link told them.

"Best avoid the towns if you know what's good for you kid." The one with the pointed helmet told them.

"And why is that?" Link asked, sensing something amiss.

"They're not going to be around much longer. If you're smart, you'll leave the country. Lest you suffer with everyone else."

Link and Romani glared then pulled out their swords. "Romani doesn't know what you've got in mind, but you're an idiot if you think we're just going to let you endanger people."

The armored guy chuckled. "And you're both idiots if you think you can even scratch me, Onox, the General of Darkness."

"We've faced tougher threats than you before and we'll do it again." Link declared.

Onox grinned, then snapped his finger. The two armored riders charged at Link and Romani, who stepped aside just in time. When the two riders slowed to turn around, Romani pulled out her bow and readied a thunder arrow. She fired it and it hit the horse, which turned to bone right away and collapsed, never looking electrocuted for even an instant. "Whoa. Didn't see that coming. Something's up." The armored rider got up to fight her and pulled a sword literally out of nowhere. Romani blocked it with her own. 'These guys must have hammerspace access too.'

Link saw this and reacted the same way. He swung his sword when the horse returned close enough and it turned into a skeleton too. The rider pulled out it's own sword and tried to slash him. Link blocked and swung back. The armor resisted any damage, but Link could have sworn the impact noise was different and the armor may have rattled a bit. Ignoring that, he aimed for a joint and stabbed, making a successful hit. The armor cracked at the point of impact and then fell apart completely, revealing it had been hollow the whole time. "What the...?"

Romani finished off her foe the way way and got the same result. "They're empty armor? What's going on?"

"Ah, didn't expect mere kids to do something like this. Then again those weren't my best tools of war. Next time I'll use something tougher." Onox mused. The two teens looked ready to fight him personally. "Sorry kids, got no time for you. Maybe next time, if you're unlucky." Onox then let some kind of purple gas erupt from his armor. Link and Romani started coughing and gagging as soon as the wind blew it towards them, their throats burning and eyes blurring. If Onox said anything to them, they couldn't hear it, and they passed out.

It wouldn't be until sunset when someone found them, near death but still alive, and carried them away from the area, noticing the dead terrain where Onox had stood and walked.


	3. The Traveling Band

_I don't own Legend of Zelda. If I did the games would tie in together better and there would be a few different ones added in._

Part One: Oracle of Seasons

Chapter Three: The Traveling Band

Link started waking up and noticed his head really hurt. His vision hadn't focused yet but he could see someone leaning over him with red hair. "Ro... mani?"

"Wrong name kid." The person told him, the voice definitely not that of the redheaded rancher. Link's eyes focused better, and he saw a young woman about ten years older than him, with tanned skin and her hair in a high ponytail. Not Romani, but somehow somewhat familiar to him.

"Where am I?" Link asked as he sat up, feeling nothing dangerous in the area. In fact, the only thing nearby that could be considered dangerous was an open campfire. It was late at night and there were people around too, and unfamiliar ones at that, but they didn't appear dangerous. Link immediately saw Romani lying next to him, looking peaceful as if merely sleeping.

"You're a lucky boy." The red-haired woman who looked over him. "We happened to be nearby and saw you almost dead on the ground. If we hadn't been there you might have died or something."

"What happened to you two?" A young boy with blonde hair asked Link. Everyone else gathered around to see how he was. Aside of the red-haired woman, Link saw a blonde man wearing mostly black and holding a fiddle, a mustachioed man holding a guitar and wearing something like a sombrero, the young boy, two girls his age that almost looked like twins but with different hair colors dressed a lot like Anju with long sleeves, and a rather heavyset woman in a purple outfit.

"We ran into a big guy with armor and some kind of poison. We could have handled him if we hadn't been caught by surprise."

"Big guy with armor? That's something you don't see everyday." The man with the fiddle replied. "I'm Johvan by the way. I'm the ringmaster of our little band. This is Rishu, my son." He patted the young boy on the back to indicate him.

"I'm Mel." The blonde twin introduced herself happily.

"I'm Rom." The black-haired twin added happily too.

"I'm Barott." The guitarist said.

"Call me Din." The redhead told him.

"And I'm Impa." The heavyset woman stated.

Link's eye's widened. "Really? I knew another woman named Impa back in Hyrule."

"You're from Hyrule? So am I. What a small world."

"If you're from Hyrule, what are you doing here in Holodrum?" Johvan asked.

"My partner and I were asked to help out the oracle here." Link answered.

Everyone jolted back at hearing this. "The oracle?" Rishu asked. "Is she in trouble?"

"Relax Rishu." Din said soothingly. "The oracle is surely in safe hands."

"Can you tell me about this oracle? We don't have those in Hyrule or Termina, which is where we've been living for almost five years." Link asked, stroking Romani's hair carefully while she slept.

"Is she your girlfriend?" Mel asked.

"Umm... I guess you could say that." Link answered with a blush.

"You guess?" Romani asked him quietly with a yawn, her eyes somewhat open now.

"Good, you're awake. How are you, Romani?" Link asked.

Romani sat up holding her head. "Ugh... my head hurts and I taste bile, but I'm okay." She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and gave Link a soft smile. "Well, am I or am I not your girlfriend, Grasshopper?"

Feeling cornered, Link wasn't immediately sure what to do. But luckily for him he was good at reacting to challenges. Before he answered, he brushed a few stray hairs behind her ears. "Of course you are, Ladybug. Who else would be?"

"One of those fan girls you have in Hyrule." Romani mock-complained.

"Who I haven't so much as seen in about five years by the way. They've got nothing on you Romani." He told her, making her blush brightly. "Why don't you say hi to the people that saved us."

"You should thank Din and Impa the most." Johvan told them. "Din found you first and used some healing spells on you two to clear your systems, and Impa took care of the rest."

"Thank you. I'm Romani by the way." Romani greeted politely with a small bow.

The band all introduced themselves to her too. "So what was that about the you and the oracle?" Rom asked.

"We were told that someone called an oracle was going to be in trouble sometime soon and we needed to be here to help them." Romani answered, basically repeating what Link had already said. "What is an oracle by the way?"

Barott cleared his throat. "Here in Holodrum we have the Oracle of Seasons. The position is reserved for the most skilled magic wielder in the country, traditionally a woman. The oracle uses her powers to make life in Holodrum more comfortable and secure for everyone else. In our case, the Oracle of Seasons makes the harvest season last a little longer, and makes it so winter isn't too long or cold and summer isn't too warm. Basically she controls the weather, and she does it all from the Temple of Seasons."

"Wow." Link and Romani said together.

"Two other countries, Labrynna and Abaren have their own oracles." Barott continued. "I've heard that the Oracle of Ages can see thru time and maybe even control it or travel in time. I haven't heard much about the Oracle of Secrets though."

"Do you know where this temple is?" Romani asked.

"Yeah. It's east of here in the woods. Quite a bit of a walk though." Johvan answered.

Link pulled out one of their maps and he checked it over. "Hmm... I don't see anything on here." Romani checked over his shoulder to confirm this.

"The haven of the oracles usually isn't on any maps so no threats can get to them." Din explained. "Problem is those that need their help have a hard time finding them too."

"How do you guys know where it is?" Romani asked.

"We travel a lot. On our trips to and from Labrynna we sometimes get within viewing distance of the temple itself." Mel told her.

"Can you show us where it is since we don't really know our way around here?" Link asked.

Everyone turned to look at Johvan, the apparent leader of their group. "I'm not sure we can spare the time. We have that show in Horon in six weeks."

"Of course we have the time." Mel and Rom said together. "It only takes three weeks to get to the temple and then three weeks back to the city."

"Well, it may be cutting it close, but I suppose we can try. But we're still practicing while we move on." Johvan relented. "What are you two going to do once you get there?"

Link shrugged. "See if the oracle's in trouble and do something about it if she is."

"Well, we'll head out tomorrow morning. Let's all just go to sleep for now." Johvan stated, and everyone nodded. "Where will you two sleep?"

"Out here. We're used to it, and we prefer being close when we sleep." Romani answered.

Impa looked surprised. "How long have you been doing that?"

"Since we were ten, and much more recently since we lost our home to ghosts." Romani answered.

"All we do is sleep, and maybe chat. So you don't have to worry about anything else going on." Link added to quench any suspicions they may have.

"Alright, but we better not hear anything too adult y'hear?" Din teasingly asked, with a look in her eyes that said in all honesty she wasn't kidding. Link and Romani nodded. "Good. You two are a little young for that anyway."

Everyone settled in and went to sleep. The male band members set up some tents while the women bunked in their covered wagon for the night. Link and Romani just pulled out their blankets and slept on the ground.

"Good thinking trying to stick with them awhile longer." Romani whispered.

"Yeah. You thinking what I'm thinking?" Link asked.

Romani nodded. "I'm not entirely sure, but I still think that's her. We should keep an eye on her."

Link nodded. He suspected the same thing, that the Din in this band was the woman they were supposed to save.


	4. A Night With the Band

_I don't own Legend of Zelda. If I did the games would tie in together better and there would be a few different ones added in._

Part One: Oracle of Seasons

Chapter Four: A Night With the Band

Link and Romani had been traveling with the band for about a week now. In that time they had reached a sort of partnership with the entertainers in their travel. While Link and Romani were by no means entertainers themselves, they always fascinated the group guiding them. The two teens would be helpful in defending them from any wild creature trying to attack the band, and hunting and foraging for food for them all, which they were really skilled at. And at night, when everyone sat around a campfire and chatted merrily, the stories of their own adventures were quite captivating. Although sometimes the two of them wondered how much of it their company believed, if any.

The group had come to a resting spot on the southern edge of a forest tonight and set up camp. Johvan, Barott, and Impa were getting the area ready for them to eat and relax. Link was out trying to catch some meat for their dinner with Rishu tagging along, while Romani, Din, Mel, and Rom were going to get a bath. After being cramped up in their wagon most of the day, it felt good to stretch their legs now. Except for the mule they used to drag the wagon; for him it felt good to not use his legs now.

Link was in the woods looking for a decent-sized animal that could feed them all, and Rishu was cautious for anything that might be hunting them. Over the past week, Link saw that the young boy tended to be a little nervous most of the time. While overall curious, cheerful, and eager to help, it also looked like he always half-expected something bad to happen. It was probably why he had such a hard time practicing his acts for the band, which were plate-balancing and juggling. Nevertheless, Link admitted the kid was better than him at those things.

"What are we looking for, Mr. Link?" Rishu whispered to avoid scaring the animals.

"Maybe some deer or boar. Something like that would be enough for us all."

"Boar? Aren't those dangerous?"

"You heard what I've gone up against. Do you really think a big pig with tusks will be able to hurt me?" Link asked.

"Maybe not you." Rishu commented.

Link turned to reassure the boy. "You'll be fine. I grew up in this kind of place and know how to handle the kind of creatures that live in forests. I've been doing it since about your age. There's nothing to worry about."

"What kind of creatures do you mean?" Rishu asked, and this time it sounded like he more curious than cautious.

"Well, there's the usual birds, deer, wolfos, frogs, snakes, spiders, and bees found everywhere. Deku babas too but I'm not sure they count as 'creatures'. All small fry compared to the things I'm used to getting a challenge from."

"What was the hardest one for you?"

Link put a hand on his chin and thought about all the bosses he had to face. "Well, not counting Ganon, Majora, or Fierce, that's a tough one. Gohma was hard at the time but I was still inexperienced back then. Now she wouldn't last a minute against me. King Dodongo was easy once you saw how he moved. The electric thing in Jabu Jabu was a hassle but not a big one. Phantom Ganon was easy once I got rid of his horse. Volvalgia was a pain in the ass and I had quite a few burns from him. Morpha was hard to hit, and so was Bongo Bongo, but not as hard as Twinrova. So probably Twinrova, regarding the Hyrulean ones."

"You mean there's more?" Rishu asked, amazed that wasn't it.

Link nodded. "Yep, had to face almost the same amount in Termina too. There was Odolwa, and he had some rather nasty tricks up his sleeves. And Goht was tough because I'd never faced something made entirely out of metal before. Gyorg was only tough once I was in the water, and Twinmold would have been nearly impossible to defeat without the Giant's Mask. Vipra was hard to actually damage until Romani showed up. Twinbino was easy to hurt but could do some serious damage. Cercan would probably have been impossible for me to fight alone, and I was knocked out for the fight against Phrite. So for those guys I'd probably have to say Cercan."

Rishu blinked, not being able to picture the monsters Link had been naming. Before he could ask what they were, he heard something moving around behind them. Not right behind them, but too nearby for the boy's liking. "Mr. Link, I think we have company."

Meanwhile, the girls had found a small pond with no fish in it. Din knew some magic so she used a minor fire spell to make the water warm enough for them. Once she was satisfied, she took off her clothes and waded inside. Romani was surprised to see such a lack of modesty, and even more surprised to see Mel and Rom do the same thing. "Wha... what are you guys doing?"

"Having a bath. Hop on it." Mel answered.

Romani blushed deeply. "I can't share a bath! No one in Termina does that!"

"Well, we're not in Termina, are we?" Din pointed out.

"But bathing is something that's supposed to be private." Romani countered.

"Hey, this is much more comfortable than sitting in a barrel of water heated by a fire." Rom told her. "We had to do that until Din joined us. This is nicer and besides, we're all girls here. So why so shy?"

"I'm just not comfortable with the idea of being naked in front of someone else." The red-haired rancher answered.

Mel arched her eyebrow and smiled slyly. "Unless that someone else was your boyfriend am I right?" Romani's blushed deepened but she said nothing. "Ha. Nailed it."

"What kind of girl do you think I am?" Romani asked.

"A normal one if you have those kind of thoughts about the man you love." Somehow, Romani turned redder. The twins laughed and Din looked highly amused. "Oh come on. You didn't really think you were hiding it were you? It's practically written on your face."

"Besides, we're girls too. It's easier for us to see that sort of thing than men." Rom stated. "So I wouldn't be too surprised if he didn't know how you really felt for him."

Mel nodded in agreement with her sister. "Yeah. I mean, sure he knows you like him, but does he know just how much?"

"Probably." Din mused. "They do spend a lot of time together and even sleep together you know."

All three girls gave the ranch girl playful perverse grins, making her even more uncomfortable. Romani had spent almost all of her life on a secluded ranch with a small amount of occupants, so she never really interacted with women her own age much. So with the way they were acting, she felt out of place and cornered. "I... look, our relationship is our business. We haven't done anything wrong and we enjoy being with each other and we're going to stay together as long as we can."

"So you two are thinking marriage and kids?" Din asked.

Romani was caught off-guard. "Well, I have thought about that stuff several times before, but until we finish this oracle business and find a new home, it's better if I don't."

Din, Mel, and Rom nodded in understanding, but then Rom looked towards her left quickly, staring at some shrubs. "Did any of you hear something?"

Romani fingered her sword's handle and quietly approached the source of the sound. She frowned when she heard something that sounded like someone was trying to get away from them, implying a peeper. She went faster and saw something that looked like a blue pig crossed with a muscular man wearing armor and carrying a spear. It saw her and looked ready to fight. Unafraid, Romani pulled out her sword and shield and got ready too.

She didn't need to, since the creature spasmed and fell face down, revealing a deep gash on the back with Link and Rishu standing behind it. "Romani, what're you doing here?"

"The girls heard something nearby and I saw this thing. What about you?"

"Same basic thing. Looking for food but heard this."

Rishu tugged Link's tunic. "Mr. Link, you should kill that thing quickly. It's a moblin and they love to fight, and where there's one there are usually more." Link nodded and cut off the moblin's head. Romani reassured the girls that everything was fine and they got dried and dressed soon. Link went back out and returned with some pheasants, saying he saw no more moblins.

When everyone went to sleep that night, Link and Romani stayed awake to keep watch for more threats, glad to see none.


	5. Disaster Brewing

_I don't own Legend of Zelda. If I did the games would tie in together better and there would be a few different ones added in._

Part One: Oracle of Seasons

Chapter Five: Disaster Brewing

Two more weeks had passed and things had stayed comfortable with the band and foreign warriors. No real threats had approached them since they used a common peaceful route thru Holodrum. Some more moblins showed up, but Link and Romani handled them without too much trouble. Once they handled three of the ogreish creatures the two found they weren't much tougher than stalchildren if you kept some distance between you and them. If you fought them head on they were a bit tougher, but not invincible, and much easier targets.

One day while they were going down a worn road, Din decided to tell Link and Romani more about the moblins, since neither knew anything about them. There were absolutely no moblins in Termina and the closest thing to them in Hyrule were those weird giants that had been guarding the Forest Temple when Link was an adult. "Moblins are among the more severe but uncommon threats to people in Holodrum. They almost count as an actual race, like the gorons or zoras, but usually act so primitive and brutish that it's just so easy to think of them as monsters. Kind like those weird fish things called zolas, no true connection to the zoras. Anyway, moblins like swords and spears and bombs, and generally attack on sight. So it's best if you don't fight one face-to-face like it's nothing."

Fortunately that kind of opportunity had yet to present itself. They saw each threat approach before it got close enough to do any damage. To do this they took turns sitting on top of the wagon and keeping an eye out for anything bad, taking turns mostly to avoid heat exhaustion and sunburns. It was the middle of a warm spring in Holodrum, and it seemed the famous oracle wasn't doing anything to make it more bearable today.

Anyway, at the present time, the band had made it to where the Temple of Seasons was. Or rather, where it was supposed to be. They arrived at a place between a mountain peak with a gentle waterfall and the large eastern forest of Holodrum. There was a large flat clearing of upturned rocks and soil but no grass that looked very out of place. After everyone stepped outside the wagon, Link and Romani wondered where they were while the band looked like they couldn't believe what they saw.

"Wh... what are earth happened here?" Johvan asked no one specific.

"What do you mean?" Romani asked, stepping up to his side to hear him better.

"The Temple of Seasons is supposed to be right here."

Link and Romani shared a look then looked over the area again. "I take it you guys don't know about anything that could do something like this?" Link asked.

Everyone shook their head, but Din was the only one to verbally answer. "I think it's more a matter of 'would' than 'could' actually. After all, why would someone go to all the trouble to move it somewhere else?"

"Move it? You mean it wasn't destroyed or something?" Impa asked.

"No. Look at the terrain." Link replied before Din did. "I've seen destroyed building and there's always some rubble or remains. Here it looks like the whole building disappeared, the open place where the foundation would be got filled in, and there hasn't been enough time for grass to regrow here since then."

Romani nodded, understanding his analysis. "Romani thinks the only reason this would happen would be if something attacked the oracle, or maybe the oracle needed to escape something before it could attack her." Nobody but Link caught the brief glance she gave to Din when she finished.

"What would try to attack the oracle?" Mel asked.

Link shrugged. "I don't know. But whatever would, me and Romani were sent here to get rid of it. And we will."

"How? You don't even know what you're looking for." Rom asked.

"We'll find it soon enough. Call it a gut feeling." The Hylian boy told the brunette twin.

"We should get going back soon Ringmaster." Barott told Johvan.

The band leader nodded. "Yes we should. We still have the festival in Horon to get to and we should tell the mayor of this so he can alert the soldiers of any impending crisis."

"Not to mention that whatever did this could maybe come back any minute." The guitarist added.

"That too. Alright everyone, let's get outta here. Link, Romani, you two coming with or going on your own from here?"

Everyone started getting back in the wagon while Romani answered Johvan. "We should probably go back with you. We still don't know our way around this country, so if we at least know where a village is we can have some bearings here."

"Don't forget Ladybug that we're missing the carnival back home this year so this festival should be a good substitute." Link added from inside the wagon, offering out his hand to help her inside.

"That's true too Grasshopper." She replied as she took his hand.

The wagon quickly turned around and headed for Horon village. It would take them about three weeks to get there even if they hurried, which they did.

* * *

After the band left the area, something slowly flew out of the trees and went north. If anyone had been there to see if, they would probably call it a bright orange gargoyle the size of a chimpanzee. It had seen the visitors to the area and heard little, but it felt it knew enough anyway, and had to go report this to it's superior.

The flight took it a week, stopping only during the brightest time of the day to rest, to reach it's destination, a fort in the western corner of the northern Holodrum mountains. It entered the fort looking for it's master, expecting to see a big man in armor first. Instead, he saw the shadow-covered forms of two old women. "Ah. Masters Koume and Kotake. I wasn't expecting to see you two here. Nevertheless, I have great news."

"Do tell, Vire."

"After all this time of trying to find the missing oracle, I believe I know where she's heading." The gargoyle fiendishly stated with a fanged grin.

"Interesting. And where might that be?" One of the women asked him. From the shadows and with near identical voices it was difficult to say which one it was though.

"Horon."

The two women shared a look of astonishment. They had been prepared for having to look in hidden locations all over Holodrum, but not in public places. "Why didn't we think of checking there?"

"We should have. If you want to hide a tree, place it in the forest. If you want to hide a person, place them in a crowd."

"We should send Onox there right away."

"Actually, I'd advise you to wait on that." Vire spoke up, regaining the witches attention. "I wasn't able to hear everything said by those in the oracles company, but I did hear the word 'festival'. I believe that she is heading to the village for such a thing so it would probably be best if Master Onox didn't make a move until then."

"Hmm... makes sense. Why barge into the town and cause chaos before the target actually gets there? That wold just give her the chance to escape unnoticed." One of the witches mused.

"Very well, we'll inform Onox when the time is more suitable. Until then, continue with everything as planned and try not to interfere with the oracle." The other witch told her minion.

"As you wish." The gargoyle said with a bow before turning around and flying off.

* * *

Time went by with little trouble, and the band came to a stop outside some wooden walls. "Well everyone, we're here. Horon." Johvan announced to his troupe. Guards came forward and asked who they were. "We're a band scheduled to perform at the festival tomorrow." Seeing no reason not to, the guards let them pass thru the entry and into the awaiting town.


	6. Festival in Horon Village

_I don't own Legend of Zelda. If I did the games would tie in together better and there would be a few different ones added in._

Part One: Oracle of Seasons

Chapter Six: Festival in Horon Village

"Okay everyone, we go on stage tomorrow so let's do our best." Johvan said to his troupe as they got settled down for the night in a small inn. They had the largest room in the hotel which they all were sharing, to save on expenses mostly. Besides, they were used to sharing quarters when resting.

"You guys are going on with us right?" Mel asked Link and Romani, not for the first time. For the past month, the band of entertainers had suggested that the two teens join their act. Link and Romani weren't necessarily against the idea, just uncertain of what they could do besides playing their ocarinas.

"We can play our ocarinas, but I don't think anything more than that. We never really worked as entertainers before." Link answered.

"You both could show off your awesome skills." Rishu suggested after he chewed some of his dinner.

"That wouldn't be a good idea." Romani countered. "Remember, we're here to get rid of a threat to the country. Showing ourselves off where that threat might learn what we can do wouldn't be good for us."

"Your ocarinas should be fine. You two are good at those." Rom pointed out. "Just try to match our tempo when we make our music too."

"That shouldn't be a problem." Link told them, then turned to Romani. "Hey Romani, you outta sing too. You have a great voice for it."

The ranch girl blushed. "I'm not that good."

"You're better than Malon even if you don't do it as often as her."

Romani lightly frowned. "Why do you always compare me to her?"

Link blinked in surprise. "I don't do that. Malon's just the only girl I knew back in Hyrule who actually sang. Saria and Ruto used ocarinas instead, and I don't know about Ruto. You're the one who always compares those girls to you, not me." Her expression didn't change. "I don't want Malon; I'm happy with you Ladybug."

"You better after all we've been thru." Romani told him as she leaned against him, her head resting on his shoulder affectionately.

'These two have it bad.' Everyone in the band, sans Rishu, thought together at seeing this. 'It's a shame they're too shy to actually admit it.'

* * *

Dawn came and signaled the start of Horon's Festival of Summer. The town liked to have one party for each of the seasons, each different and seasonal-appropriate. All of them were like a flea market or open shopping plaza with various attractions and events to keep people entertained. Shopkeepers would set up kiosks and display their merchandise at reduced prices in hopes of attracting more customers, and some came from other countries to showcase their own wares. Some food kiosks served dishes that weren't offered any other time of year, and sweets were most bountiful out of them all. For the Festival of Summer, the most popular was naturally various flavors of ice cream. What made this particular festival unique was the summer theme behind most activities. Fireworks would be launched at night, done only for this season, a small ferris wheel and a merry go-round were available, and a swimming pool was set up for those that got too hot.

In one corner of the festival grounds was a bandstand where the various entertainers would perform to liven up the atmosphere. In another corner was a playground for children who didn't want to walk around too much. In the third corner there was an arrangement of game stands with prizes, and the fourth corner was marked with a gazebo that was there year-round and had no real significance here, but the flowerbeds around it were nice to look at. The center of the grounds was occupied with a stone fountain. The southernmost border of the area was fenced off since it was close to a cliffside that was against the ocean, but no other side needed such a barrier erected.

The band got outside and headed for the bandstand to get set up for their show before the majority of the attendants would show up. They came to a stop in the center of town near the fountain and Johvan called them all together. "Okay guys, we go on in one hour. We need to get ready and able before then. Link, Romani, since you two have another job, if you want to use that time to check around for anything suspicious now's your chance before our lunch break. Just try to be back before showtime. Can you do that?"

Link nodded, but Romani had a question of her own. "Say, Ringmaster, what's that there?" She pointed to a fancy ivory statue on top of the stone fountain that looked a little out of place. The statue depicted a young woman wearing a long dress with no sleeves and two short slits up the sides of her legs. Her hair was long and rounded at the end, which stopped just above her posterior. Her stance looked playful and on the lookout, and her expression seemed carefree. A symbol on her belly looked like the shining sun.

"Ah, that's Natsumi, the patron goddess of summer and one of the fire goddesses." Din answered. "She serves under the chief goddess Din, for which I'm named, and brings summer to the world. Every year for this festival this statue is brought here to be on displayed. The village uses the other three seasonal goddesses when it's their time of year. There's Harumi, goddess of spring and an earth goddess, Akimi, goddess of autumn and a wind goddess, and Fuyumi, goddess of winter and a water goddess. These festivals are done to honor them all along with the seasons and the earth."

"Reminds me of nature ceremonies the Kokiri did all the time." Link commented.

Din smiled. "I love nature, the seasons, and the earth. It's a beautiful thing and we all must do what we can to honor it all. Times like this are a great way to show our gratitude to the heavens for their gifts and remind ourselves what we need to appreciate."

"Sorry but we don't have time to stand around and talk all day. Let's get to it everyone." Johvan told everyone while clapping his hands twice quickly. Everyone nodded and went off to the bandstand except Link and Romani.

"We'll see you guys really soon. Gotta make sure no bad guys are lurking around here." Romani told them with a wave, which they returned before leaving their sight. 'Finally, some alone time with Link. I missed that.'

"I'm kind of surprised with what Din told us back there." Link suddenly stated casually. "Back in Hyrule, I only ever heard of three deities and some forest spirits. I wonder just how many gods and goddesses there are."

Romani thought about it too and shrugged. "Search me."

'Don't tempt me.' Link quickly thought, briefly and involuntarily looking her body over as he thought that.

* * *

Not that far away from Horon, a man laid in waiting. A gargantuan man wearing white armor with some orange decals painted on it. Surrounding him was nothing but rotting plants and a giant mace. Tapping his foot impatiently, he nearly lost it when he finally had a visitor approach. "About bloody time Vire. Have you found her or not?"

The gargoyle landed on a tree stump and nodded. "Indeed Lord Onox. The target is within Horon's walls as we speak, near the southwest end of town. An easily trappable position if not a convenient one for you to reach and catch her."

Onox smiled. "Nevertheless, she surely cannot get away from me this time. She lucked out when we sank her temple with her unfortunately not in it at the time, but this time she has nowhere to run. The avatar of the earth goddess and her power over the seasons will be mine to do as I see fit to this landscape." He balled his fist to emphasize his claim.

"Then what are we waiting for?" Vire asked as he started flapping his wings again.

"Absolutely nothing." The armored man answered as he picked up his weapon and headed for the unaware village.


	7. Onox Attackes

_I don't own Legend of Zelda. If I did the games would tie in together better and there would be a few different ones added in._

Part One: Oracle of Seasons

Chapter Seven: Onox Attacks

Link and Romani spent the next half hour looking over many of the booths at the festival as more people began to appear, and looking out for anything that didn't look like it sound be there. Since they weren't natives to the area that last part turned out to be harder than they first thought, so they soon stopped and went shopping. They had more than enough rupees on hand, and the first thing they did was buy more supplies, such as arrows, bombs, and potions. After that they mostly did the kiosk version of window-shopping and grabbed some popcorn and corndogs, which they had sampled back in Termina a few times in the past. They didn't go to the game area since they didn't think they'd have enough time to get back to the band that helped them out.

"How much time to we have left?" Link asked as he sat on a bench and looked around, quickly remembering their excuse to get away for a bit.

"Umm... last clock I saw said about thirty minutes. So we can relax." Romani answered as best she could. "This is nice. We haven't had a chance to do this in quite some time haven't we?"

Link nodded with a grin. "Yeah, I think since the last Carnival of Time."

"You think Clocktown held this year's one by now?" Romani asked. By her estimate, the time for the carnival this year had already passed a week ago. So she and Link would turn fifteen soon.

Link shrugged. "I dunno. Rebuilding the city might have taken too long or cost too much to bother."

"Wonder how many died because of those creeps." Romani thought aloud sadly, remembering her older sister.

Link patted her shoulder. "Try not to think about it. Just be glad we saved all we could and we're still alive to help others."

Romani nodded with a smile. "Yeah, but I'd still like to go back someday and check up on the place."

Link smiled. "We will. We may have to wait until we're done with this oracle mess, but someday we'll check up on our old home."

"Old home, huh? Makes me wonder where our new one will be."

Link shrugged. "Maybe we can rebuild the ranch once we get back. Or find a place in Clocktown."

Romani gave him a surprised look. "Back in Termina? But I always thought you wanted to move back to Hyrule."

"And leave you behind? Why would I do that Ladybug?"

Romani teared up happily and hugged him. "It's not important if we live in Termina or Hyrule Link. I just want to know when I wake up I'll be able to see you right away."

"We're not going to be seperated anytime soon Romani."

'This is it, the perfect chance to tell him.' Romani told herself. "Link, I--"

The unwelcome sound of a large bomb blowing up one of the village's walls cut her off and made them both stand to see the threat. "Looks like that's our cue."

Romani pulled out her sword. "Whatever it is, it's dead." Her eyes were like steel on fire. 'Damn you for ruining that perfect moment! Your head is coming off for that one!'

Link saw the look in her eyes and knew something was wrong. 'Boy, I'm glad I'm not the enemy now. She looks more pissed than during her time of the month.' After living with two girls for four years Link knew perfectly well when Romani's cycle kicked in and now wasn't it.

A shockwave of some kind suddenly exploded from the direction of their destination and everyone around them just collapsed like a puppet with cut strings. Link and Romani came to a stop and looked around to see if anything else had happened, but so far just passing out appeared to be the worst of whatever that shockwave did.

"Why the heck were we not affected?" Romani asked.

"Don't know, don't care. And we don't have time to find out." Link replied before they started running again. A bunch of keese started to swarm the area, and Link and Romani killed off a bunch along their way. There appeared to be too many to handle all at once so they didn't try.

When they got to the bandstand, they were somewhat surprised to see it was the same place the band was scheduled to perform, and somewhat surprised to see the armored guy who nearly killed them a few weeks ago causing the commotion. They were more surprised to see the band down on the ground looking like they had been knocked out too. No blood or obvious injuries, but they sure weren't lying down for the fun of it. Din was the only one still standing, but she was standing up to their target empty-handed.

"Well Din, you've done a wonderful job of hiding yourself from me. But you didn't honestly think you could hide forever did you?" Onox taunted, making no move to harm her yet.

Din's frown deepened. "Didn't plan to. I just needed to buy some time."

"Well, time's up oracle. Now it's time for you to come with me."

"You don't actually expect me to just go along with you?"

Onox stepped forward and fiddled with his mace. "That would make my job easier, but I'm no idiot. I've got ways of making you come with me."

"You'll have to get thru us first!" Link shouted as he stepped in view brandishing his shield and sword. Romani didn't say anything but she followed his actions.

With his helmet on, it was hard to see Onox's expression, but it looked like he was caught off-guard. "Wait a minute. Didn't I kill you two weeks ago? How can you be standing here?" He was also wondering how they could still be conscious just now since that last attack should have knocked out anyone with weak or nonexistant magic power.

"We've faced many things tougher than you, jerk. You can't get rid of us that easily." Romani claimed.

Onox's eyes briefly glanced at Din then back at the two teens. "Ah, I see, the oracle here must have saved you from death's door." 'And they may have more power than I thought. But it won't be enough to help them.'

'So we were right. Din is the oracle of Holodrum.' Link thought.

"Don't count on her saving you twice." Onox stated as he swung his mace around. They blocked it, but the force of the swing made their shields crack but not break entirely. And he began to step forward more when the mace moved in it's swing behind him. Link and Romani took that opportunity to dash at him hoping to find an open spot on his armor. But Onox only needed one hand to swing his spiked iron ball so his free hand knocked them away. When Link and Romani were having a difficult time breathing, Onox got closer to Din, who was trying to keep some distance between them. "This is pitiful of you Din. Relying on a couple of kids to shield you? Have the oracles sunk so low?"

"I don't need to be lectured by a nature-destroying thug such as yourself." Din said.

Onox then got a wicked idea, and placed one of his feet on Romani's neck. Not enough to actually hurt her, but enough so she couldn't move and get his point across. "Surrender now Din, or she dies here and now."

Worried, Din looked down at Romani, who was gasping for breath and trying to dislodge the armored foot. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Link slowly scramble back to his feet. She saw no way he could improve the situation, so she sighed. "Alright Onox, you win. Just let them go unharmed."

"Wise choice woman." The armored man replied with a smirk.

"No Din. You can't give up like that." Link said as Onox then pointed at her and the tip of his finger glowed, and right away Din was covered in a soft glow that turned into a pale red crystal. He briefly remembered the time Ganon captured Zelda in the Temple of Time.

"Link, he would have done this anyway. At least you'll get away alive now." Din said, athough Link could barely hear her thru the crystal.

Onox took his foot off Romani's throat, much to her relief. Link tried to slash him, but the dark general caught and held his sword. "Not interested in you anymore weakling. I've got what I came here for." A thin tornado came and engulfed Onox and Din, and when it was gone, so were they. The numerous keese remained though and none of the downed people started to recover yet.

"Looks like we've got our hands full, don't we Romani?" He commented as he helped her to her feet.

"Way to state the obvious, Grasshopper."


	8. Din's SOS

_I don't own Legend of Zelda. If I did the games would tie in together better and there would be a few different ones added in._

Part One: Oracle of Seasons

Chapter Eight: Din's SOS

It took some time to get rid of all the keese, but Link and Romani got them all, using their hookshots to conserve on arrows. After a while, it looked like the batlike animals were leaving on their own and some of the people were starting to wake up.

"Now that that's done, how are we going to help Din?" Romani asked.

"Not a clue." Link answered. "I know we have to find wherever that guy took her and get her back, but I have absolutely no idea how to get started."

"Well, you've been in this sort of situation before," Romani pointed out, "So how did you get started those times?"

"Someone more informed than me told me where to go. Rauru, Sheik, Navi, Tatl, Kapora Gebora, hell even Obsidia." Link answered after he thought about it. "But nobody's saying a word this time. Are we supposed to just scower Holodrum until we find Din?"

Romani shook her head. "We don't have time for that. That could take us months."

Link nodded, then slowly turned to look at the wagon. "Hey, when we first met Din we admitted we were here to save the oracle. So she knew she would have to rely on us later. Especially if something like this happened."

"And?" Romani asked, not quite sure where he was headed with this.

"What if she left something here for us to use to get her out of trouble?" Link asked.

Romani thougth it over and shrugged. "I don't see why she wouldn't. Let's check it out."

The two went into the wagon and found the box containing all of Din's personal stuff. There wasn't much, just a change of outfits and some accessories for her dancing. She had some bracelets, necklaces, hairclips, and a purple staff shaped like a bonbori with four open holes on the sides of the blunt end.

"Hey, found something." Romani announced when her eyes happened to catch a rolled up piece of paper attached to the bottom of the lid. She opened it up and her and Link looked at what was on it. At first it was blank, but before they could say a word about it, words slowly appeared on it, revealing a hidden message.

_Link, Romani, if you're reading this, then I'm not here anymore. Whatever it was you were supposed to keep me safe from, somehow managed to get past you. Not that I'm saying it's your fault._

_Anyway, if you two haven't already figured this out, I'm the oracle you two were looking for. I lived inside the Temple of Seasons and served my beloved Holodrum from there until the seasonal spirits warned me of an impending threat. I managed to get away just before the temple was pulled underground. Whoever did that must have planned to catch me off-guard. Before they realized I wasn't inside, I had already convinced our band I was an ordinary woman with some dance skills. I gotta say being part of a troupe was more entertaining than an oracle's lifestyle._

_Anyway, back to the important part now. It was bad enough to lose the Temple of Seasons because my powers worked best there. But if I'm captured the odds are I can't use them at all. That's bad news for everyone, because Holodrum's weather has gotten so used to being guided by the oracle that without it, it'll be out of control. The seasons will go into complete disarray. Summer heat one moment, blizzards the next, with plants blooming and dying like spring and autumn in a single day. And if nothing is done, Holodrum will be rendered a barren wasteland because nature itself will have collapsed._

_I need you two to restore order to Holodrum before you bother helping me. Mainly because that's the best way you can help me for now. I had to weaken my own powers to avoid being found and I need you to help get them back at full strength. The problem is that might take you a bit of time even if you hurry. I know what you're thinking; if you take too long my life is even more at risk. Something tells me the enemy needs me alive rather than dead. If they didn't kill me, but abducted me instead, that just proves it._

_But back to my original point. I left you two a very special tool of mine, the Rod of Seasons. With it, I can wield my power outside the temple, and you can too. Or at least, you could if I hadn't taken away it's own power. There are four emblems for it, one for each season, that I removed, making it just a plain rod. Each emblem was hidden in a minishrine around Holodrum, and guarded to ensure no one wicked acquires it. You have to get all four to reinvoke the rod's power, and then you can find and save me. The first one's at Eyeglass Lake, but you'll have to find the rest without my help. I'm counting on you, so try not to take too long._

"What do you think of this Romani?" Link asked when they finished reading.

"Sort of reminds me of our little trip around Termina. Gotta go to four places to save one woman." Romani replied.

Link smirked. "It is almost the same isn't it?"

Romani nodded. "But what I don't get is why the enemy, that Onox guy, would keep Din alive if he wants Holodrum and everyone in it to suffer. That doesn't make sense."

"One thing I've learned in my years of doing this is that not everything the enemy does will make sense. Ganon chose to keep people hostages or brainwash them rather than outright kill them, and Majora preferred frightening people or getting them in bad situations. This Onox must have his reasons for keeping Din alive, but I'm not gonna waste thinking trying to figure it out."

Romani nodded again and touched her sword handle. "Nope, we're going to put a stop to him instead."

Link pulled out their map of Holodrum. "Eyeglass Lake? Ah, just as I thought, not too far away from here. We should get there in no time."

"Let's wait until everyone wakes up though so we can tell them good bye." Romani suggested. Link agreed.

* * *

Around noon everyone started to recover from whatever spell was used to make them sleep. When the band members regained consciousness, the first thing they saw was Link and Romani patiently sitting down and waiting for them. "Glad you guys are up."

"How long were we out?" Mel asked wearily.

"Not long. A couple of hours. Along with everyone else in town. Guess the festivals been cancelled for the day." Romani commented.

"What the heck happened?" Barott asked.

"Some guy in armor barged into town and made everyone go to sleep while he took Din away." Link sadly told him.

Everyone gasped. "Din's gone?"

Link and Romani sadly nodded in unison, a somewhat strange sight to witness. "Don't worry. We're going to go get here back. It may take a while, but things like this is what I... we live for." Link told them all.

"You sure you can do it?" Rishu asked.

Romani nodded confidently this time. "He's done it before he can do it again."

"Where will you go?" Mel curiously asked, a little nervousness also hearable in her voice.

"This place called Eyeglass Lake is our first destination. From there, we'll have to find out on our own." Link answered.

Johvan smiled. "We can take you there."

Romani held up her hand. "No. Thanks, but we don't want to risk your safety. Things are going to be tough and dangerous for us, but we can handle it. You guys, not so much. Sorry."

Johvan nodded slowly. "I understand. And thank you."

Link stood up and straightened out his tunic. "We'll be back. And with Din. We promise."

"Best of luck." Everyone in the band told them together.

* * *

Onox used some magic to move the crystal containing Din around to the top of a pedestal inside his base. "There. That's a good place to keep you for now."

"Until what?" Din asked. It was really hard to hear her, but somehow Onox did. Or maybe he just read her lips.

"Just long enough to cause some misery in the people of Holodrum. Letting them think their oracle has abandoned them or turned against them. And after a while, if they hear you're dead, all hope will be good. Just got to diminish it first by keeping you here for some time. Until then, sleep." Onox's hand glowed and he touched the crystal. Din screamed in pain and collapsed unconsciously inside her prison, looking like she was sleeping vertically.


	9. Winter in Holodrum

__

I don't own Legend of Zelda. If I did the games would tie in together better and there would be a few different ones added in.

Part One: Oracle of Seasons

Chapter Nine: Winter in Holodrum

"Are we there yet?" Romani asked while panting. At the moment the area they were in felt like the middle of summer and both teens were sweaty and dehydrated.

"Do you see a lake anywhere?" Link answered, not in the best mood either.

Romani fell on the ground. "It's too damn hot here. Summers on the ranch were never this bad."

"I remember. Give it a few minutes. Things should change soon or later."

About three minutes later a strong gust of wind came by and covered them in snow. Romani, who had still been on the ground at the time, rose up and shook off the snow before glaring at Link. "You and your big mouth."

"At least we're not hot anymore." He weakily defended.

"Something tells me this is going to take a while." Romani muttered as she briefly shivered. "Winters weren't this bad back home either were they?"

"It's still not as bad as Snowhead was the first time I was there. I'm still surprised I didn't get frostbite."

"I bet even if you did you could have just gone back in time and gotten rid of it." The redhead commented while trying to stick close to the blonde boy for warmth.

"I just hope we get to experience spring soon enough." Link stated.

A few hours later and the winter hadn't stopped at all. The sky was dominated by blizzard clouds and the wind kept throwing snow and ice around. It was like Snowhead all over again for them both. The only reason they even knew it was night was that everyone went dark around them and they heard a wolfos howl in the distance.

Unable to find any shelter the two set up a tent and got inside, covered with blankets and huddled together for warmth. The wind kept pounding against the side of the tent loudly, ensuring they couldn't go right to sleep anytime soon.

"Reminds me of that bad storm we got three winters ago. Remember how the ice kept pounding against the windows?" Romani causally asked.

"Was that before or after I had to get that stray calf back into the barn?" Link asked back.

"Are you still mad me and Cremia couldn't help you? It was too cold for us."

"I was numb all night."

Romani smirked. "At least Romani helped you stay warm so you could sleep."

"Yeah. I think Cremia actually told you to stay with me that night for once, but I was kinda out of it then."

Romani looked down and shedded a single tear. "Romani misses her."

Link tenderly squeezed her hand. "Me too. She was the closest thing to a mother I ever had and one of the nicest people I ever knew."

Romani slowly nodded. "Yeah, she was. Why did she have to suffer like that because of those two jerks?"

Link shrugged. "If I could go back and change it, I would. And before you ask, no, I don't know how to do that this time. The Song of Time hasn't worked that way in years."

Romani sadly sighed. "Maybe... it was just her time. Like... like my parents."

With his free hand, Link started stroking her hair. "Things will be fine Ladybug. I promise." He stayed silent for a bit then noticed she was breathing evenly and gently, meaning she was asleep. He pulled her blanket up more and carefully laid down on his side, trying not to disrupt her, before going to sleep himself.

* * *

When both woke up in the morning they were freezing and unable to move right away. Not frozen solid, just too numb from the cold to do anything but shiver. Once they could move and try to leave the tent to go somewhere warmer, they saw they were half-buried in snow on all sides. Had they stayed there any longer, they might have been completely covered.

"It doesn't look like it stopped snowing once last night." Link stated as he scanned over the area.

"But aren't the seasons constantly changing? So how could it stay winter?" Romani asked.

Link shrugged. "Maybe something's influencing it here."

"Let's get rid of it then or we'll freeze." As a rancher, Romani was never too fond of winter. "Any idea where the influencer is?"

"Maybe where it's coldest?" Link joked.

"Not funny."

"Then we just look around until we find something that looks like a shrine." Link replied.

"Is there really no better way?" Romani whined. "I'm already going numb."

Link pulled out his goron mask. "At least we have a way to keep warm." Even though Gorons weren't immune to the cold like they were fire, they did have a higher tolerance than humans.

"Great idea." Romani said before putting her own mask on. "I already feel better."

"Just remember we are heading towards a lake so we will have to take these off sooner or later." Link as a goron told her, making her mock-pout. With nothing more to say the two rolled off towards their destination. Luckily the land was mostly flat but they still had to be careful since they weren't sure just where they were going.

As gorons, getting where they wanted to go took barely any time at all. At full speed they could move faster than horses; as long as they didn't have to worry about obstacles or sharp turns. Sometimes back in Termina Link would use his goron form to get around rather than Epona, to save time in his frantic three day schedule if nothing else.

In no time at all Link and Romani thought they reached what was supposed to be their destination. According to their map, they were supposed to be next to the same lake they had woken up next to when they first came to Holodrum. Everything was covered in snow and half of the lake looked frozen over. Winds were practically howling, making it look a lot like the area around Snowhead Temple at the moment.

"Ok, according to Din's note, the first place to check out should be around here." Link stated.

"But where? We spent two days around here when we got here and I don't remember seeing any sort of shrine." Romani added.

"Maybe that's because we weren't looking." Link replied as he looked over the area. "Or maybe it's because we didn't check the whole area."

"So what exactly are you thinking?"

Link took off his mask and became his normal self again. "Let's check the island in the lake. We never tried that before."

"Can I leave my mask on?" Romani asked.

"I wouldn't. Don't want to risk that this ice isn't strong enough to support the weight."

Romani sighed. "Damn you're right. And that better not be a fat joke." She then took off her own mask.

"Would I call you that, Ladybug?"

"Not if you knew what's good for you. Don't wanna piss off a woman who's handy with a sword." She said with a light grin.

The two walked across the ice, being careful each step since it wasn't frozen all the way to the bottom. It cracked often but never shattered, implying the trip back to land wasn't going to be easier. One time it cracked more and Link's foot went thru the ice, but Romani quickly got a hold of him to prevent the rest of him from falling it. After that they simply scrambled for land heedless of the state of the ice under them.

Once they were on land they sat down to catch their breath next to a leafless tree to get out of the wind. A brief look at Link's foot showed no sign of frostbite, just numbness that might take a while to wear off. "I don't see any shrine here, do you?" Romani asked.

"Nope. And with all this wind blowing snow around I can barely see what's on the shore." Link answered, then he leaned back. As he did, he pushed against a gnarled branch and it shifted to the side unexpectedly. After that, a rumbling noise could be heard from underneath them, as if something big was trying to surface.

Link and Romani stepped aside, and from the snow-covered ground a small building started to rise up with the tree on top. It came to a stop after a few minutes and appeared to look like a dome with the roots of the tree framing the open entryway. Carved into the dome above the door was a snowflake symbol.

"Maybe this is it." Link commented.

"Looks rather small." Romani speculated quietly.

"Maybe there's more underneath. Like a tomb or something."

Romani shuddered, this time not from the cold. "Please don't bring up tombs."

Without another word, the two descended into the shadowy interior of the dome, Link going down first. A ladder helped them get down, but one of the rungs Romani set her foot on broke and it made her fall right on top of Link's head, making him lose his footing and sending them both falling to the bottom. Fortunately it wasn't a long drop but the landing was hard.

When the two stood up again, they saw an icy hallway inviting them to enter. Hand in hand with their free ones ready to grab their swords, they did just that.


	10. Winter Shrine 1

_I don't own Legend of Zelda. If I did the games would tie in together better and there would be a few different ones added in. _

Part One: Oracle of Seasons

Chapter Ten: Winter Shrine Part One

The inside of the small shrine could be best described in two words: unsurprisingly cold. The stone walls looked covered in frost, and the floor looked dangerously slippery. The frost made the stone look a light shade of blue with a bit of gray mixed in. A hallway into the heart of the shrine greeted them, with nothing notable apparent for them to see. Both Link and Romani could see their breath, even though they were indoors.

"Heh. First the Ice Cavern, then Snowhead and now this. Why do I always have to go someplace freezing?" Link complained quietly. "And if not there, someplace scorching hot like Death Mountain or Gerudo Vally, or somplace dank and creepy like the Shadow Temple or Ikana. Can't I just once have to go to a tropic beach where it's nice and comfortable and the only thing I have to worry about is maybe a shark in the water?"

"I suppose Great Bay doesn't count, does it?" Romani asked.

"Nope. Still had to be a hero there too several times."

Romani wrapped her left arm around his waist to comfort him. "And Romani's glad you did, especially that one time I was in trouble."

"I'm just glad the Gerudo's never caught up to us after that."

"Me too. I don't think I'd be too upset if I never saw one again. But enough about that, where do we go in here?"

Link looked down the hall, and saw it just kept going forward. "Only one way to go it looks like. And just to warn you, when we do get to Hyrule, you might have to see at least one Gerudo there." He saw her face show some concern. "But I promise that one is an allie."

"Wait, you mean that sage you told me about?" Romani asked, and Link nodded. "I guess I can handle that one. Besides, she's got to be better than the other girls."

Link smirked. "You're not gonna stop being jealous of them until you rub it in their faces I'm with you, right?"

Romani didn't answer, but her blush said it all. "Let's focus more on getting out of this freezing tomb as quick as possible."

After a little more walking they came up to a frozen door. It was difficult to open, but they managed and saw it connected the hallway to a large open room with several blue flame hearths. Aside from those a few ice keese were flying around and there was a door on each of the other three ways. The one directly in front of them was frozen shut, the one to their right was locked, and the one to their left was frozen in place open.

"Guess we go left." Link stated. "Watch out for those keese. They're nastier than ordinary ones."

"Let me guess, they freeze you solid?" Romani asked as they both tried to get to the door without catching the keese's attention.

"Bingo. It wears off quickly but it's always a pain." Link whispered.

About a few feet from the door one of the freezing bat-like creatures did spot them and tried to hit them. Luckily they got into the next room and keese have short attention spans so it left them alone now that it couldn't see them. The room they entered looked a lot like the sort of room Link would fight a wizrobe in. But there was no wizrobe present. There were however several poes floating around aimlessly. Thinking quickly Link and Romani pulled out their bows and fired arrows at all of them. They didn't bother to count their targets, just aimed and fired. In no time at all the poes were gone, and a barred door they didn't notice until now on the other side of the room unlocked.

"So far this is pretty easy." Romani commented.

"Yeah, _so far_. But it should get tougher later." Link replied.

Apparently later came sooner than he expected. When both of them started heading for the door, pieces of the tiled floor started falling away, revealing a pit of blue fire underneath the thin curved path that was left for them to walk across.

"You and your big mouth." Romani snidely said to her friend.

The two walked across the room, carefully balancing themselves since them floor was rather slippery. Romani almost fell over but Link caught her and held her stable, standing still for a moment to regain their bearings. Once they were done, they continued on and eventually reached the door.

They opened it, and inside was a snow-filled room with some pillars. When they went inside, the door closed behind them, and one of those snowball-throwing creatures Link encountered back at Snowhead appeared to their left and threw a snowball at them. It hit Link but the damage was minimal. He pulled out a fire arrow and swiftly killed it. More appeared, this time two, and both Link and Romani killed them simultaneously. A fourth one showed up in their far right and Romani got that one. When it died, a chest appeared in the center of the room. Link opened it to find a small key.

"Not much of a start huh?" Romani asked, lightly shivering again.

"That's how it usually starts." Link replied.

"Sometimes your experience makes me feel better, and sometimes like now it bothers me."

"I know what you mean."

The two left the room and had to walk across the slippery narrow path above blue fire again. This time Link slipped and almost fell over completely. He grabbed ahold of the edge of the path, but it was too slippery and cold for him to keep a grip for long. "Hold on." Romani grabbed both of his arms and tried to lift him up. Training with Link for almost five years had made her much stronger than a normal girl, but she still couldn't lift him up all the way. Best she could do was bring him up enough so he held on with his arms and chin as well as his hands, which were starting to go numb.

Romani knelt down to catch her breath before she continued. "You're heavier than you look, Grasshopper."

"It's all muscle, you know."

"Can you turn into a goron and maybe find a way up out of the pit?" Romani suggested.

"Do you see a ladder or rungs anywhere?" Link asked.

Romani checked, but saw no way for someone to climb out. "Nope. Guess we got to get you out of there the hard way." Once again, Romani tried to lift him up while he tried to lift himself up. After a few minutes of effort and struggling, it was done. They got to the safe part of the room, and Romani sat down and panted. "Let me rest for a bit. That was hard." Since the floor was as cold as ice and the ranchgirl wore a plain dress she didn't bother sitting for long.

The two went back into the room with the ice keese. This time however, they used their arrows to get rid of them, and their shields and swords for the two that got close to them. Once that was done, they got to the locked door, unlocked it, and entered the next room. This room looked as simple as the other did before the tiles fell away. Only this time the floor had several spikediscs moving around quickly, some back and forth and one in a circle around the room. At least there were no creatures to fight this time.

Evading the moving spikes had been a hassle, but not really much of a threat. Link had learned long ago back in Hyrule how to dodge these things and Romani simply copied his movements when the timing was right. The door on the far side of the room was barred when they got to it so they figured they must have missed something.

They looked around but nothing particular caught their eyes. Until they looked up that is. A Like Like dropped from the ceiling as if trying to crush them, and it was only because they heard it beforehand that they managed to get out of it's way. Link really didn't like these things since once in Hyrule he did get eaten by one and it wasn't pleasant, even if the creature spat him out. Luckily Like Likes were easily to kill with arrows so he and Romani got rid of it effortlessly.

The bars on the door receded, allowing the two teens entry to the next room. They went inside, and saw a regular room with a few spikes coming out from all around. It reminded Link of the room in the Water Temple where he found Morpha, only this room had no pool, just more snow. In the center of the room there was a hot spring with steaming warm water. Romani's eyes brightened and a smile grew. "Finally, we can warm up."

The sound of her voice caught the attention of their next opponent, a pack of four white wolfos. Nothing new to either of them so they got out their swords and mauled them without even a little worry. Both of them took two, and it was easier for Link since he was more familiar with then two against one approach than Romani was. Even so, while he finished first, he saw from her match she was doing just fine without him.

Romani killed the last one, and sat down next to the spring. Because of the heat, the ground next to it was not covered in snow. "Boy Romani needs this." Once she started to pull her blouse up and off, she remembered Link was right there and watching, making her put it back down, turn away, and blush. Link turned away too, not really knowing why but feeling he should.

'What do we do here?' Romani asked herself while trying to calm her racing heart. 'We can't bathe together, not yet anyways. I haven't even told him I love him yet; how can I be naked in front of him? And we can't bathe with our clothes on. They'll freeze solid here if they get wet. But it's not fair to tell Link to wait his turn. He's cold too. I... I don't know what to do.'

"Let me know when you're done." Link said, catching the ranchgirl's attention. "I'll go wait in the other room." Without waiting for a response, he walked out, trying to hide his own blush.

Romani still blushed, but only momentarily hesitated before getting undressed and hopping in the spring. The warm water soothed her tired body, reheated her, and washed away the sweat she built up during the fights. After a while she got out and dried off, then went to Link and told him he could use it now. Link relaxed just like Romani had done, and when he finished he collected some of the water in his jars.

"Why?"Romani asked when he told her to do the same.

"Remember the main room? There's one door left, and it's frozen solid. We'll need this to thaw it, and we might need more in the next rooms." Link explained. Romani nodded and obeyed, trusting his judgment.

The two went back to the main room and found some more ice keese had taken the place of the previously killed from. Where they came from, neither knew or cared. They just shot them all dead. "We probably should bring some of this fire too." Link said before he held an empty bottle above the blue flame hearth and managed to contain some of it. Once again, Romani obeyed.

The hot water they collected unfroze the last door and since it wasn't locked they went right in. On the other side was another long corridor, but at the end was a large fancy-looking blue door with a snowflake symbol on it. They saw it wasn't locked when they got to it, which confused them.

"What do you think is inside?" Romani asked.

"Either another level, or whatever creature we have to get rid of to help Din regain her power." Link answered as he grabbed the handle and opened the door.


	11. Winter Shrine 2

_I don't own Legend of Zelda. If I did the games would tie in together better and there would be a few different ones added in. _

Part One: Oracle of Seasons

Chapter Eleven: Winter Shrine Part Two

On the other side of the door, Link and Romani at first saw nothing. It was too dark, and somehow colder with a light breeze that made them briefly think they stepped outside. There was no noise except for the gust brushing against their clothes and scattering the loose bits of snow of the floor.

The two stood in one place and started to shiver. Romani breathed into her hands in an attempt to warm them while Link rubbed his upper arms. "Do you see anything?" He asked.

"Nope. Nothing except my breath." She answered. "Wait, did you just hear something?"

Link listened very carefully for anything besides the breeze. "Yeah, I do. It's faint but it's there."

"What is it?"

"A sound I know very well. A horse running."

"A horse?" Romani asked in disbelief.

"Yep, and it's coming towards us."

Romani grabbed her sword. "I don't like the sound of that."

The light blizzard they were in made seeing anything difficult. It was about as thick as a bad day in Snowhead. But shortly, a shadowy silhouette appeared in front of them and it got bigger and darker quickly. Link and Romani got their shields and swords into position, awaiting their new enemy.

The creature came to a stop shortly it became visible. At first glance, it looked like a white centaur with black hooves and a white tail. But it wasn't a normal centaur, because this one had a horse's head instead of a person's. The mane was white, the eyes were green and the teeth were sharp and yellow. The centaur held in each of it's fist a short sword. It roared like an ape and stood on it's hind legs to intimidate the two teens for a moment. And because they had no fairy with them, they couldn't figure out it's name or weakness right away.

Once on all four legs again, the horse-headed centaur (which we will call Horsehead for simplicity) tried to cut it's two targets with it's swords. The shields blocked the attack and Horsehead looked mad because of it. He snorted and the breath coming out of his nostrils was clearly visible in the cold. But it didn't dissipate, rather instead increasing and heading towards the two humans. Link and Romani instinctively got away from the creature.

"There's something about that breath of his." Link commented.

Romani nodded. "I agree. I don't know what it does and I don't want to know, but I just know it does something."

Horsehead chose to focus his attention on Link and tried to trampled him with his front legs. With his back turned to Romani, the ranchgirl swing her sword to cut the creature. However, the tail swung and deflected the blade with enough force to throw it out of her hands several meters away. Romani made a small shriek at losing her weapon and began digging thru the snow to get it, her hands quickly going numb.

Link was trying to do some damage to the centaur but the creature proved to be a good defender. It blocked with it's swords and it's weird breath made Link too afraid to get any closer. And whenever Link tried to bring out his bow, Horsehead would attack his open area, requiring Link to block rather than gain his weapon. "Romani I could really use a hand here." He shouted.

'Yeah me too.' She thought as she tried to rub some warmth back into her hands. Finally she found her sword, but had to be careful touching it since it was so cold now. 'Why didn't me and Link pack some gloves and cold weather clothes for this? Did we learn nothing from Snowhead?'

Romani finally got a comfortable grip on her blade's handle and tried to strike the beast from behind again. This time, it tried to kick her, but her shield took the brunt of it and saved her life. Her shield got a good dent in it, in need of repairs now but still functional, making her swear under her breath. She backed away and pulled out her own bow and fired.

The arrow made contact in Horsehead's rear end on the right side of the tail. The jolt of pain made him rear up on his hind legs and roar in brief pain. Link took the chance to cut the creature's underside but had to move quickly to avoid being crushed by the hooves. He got close to Romani. "I'm guessing this thing isn't too good at long range fighting."

"Problem is, neither are we. We're better at close range." She replied.

"Yes, but we can do some long range fighting. You should use your bow while I get close when he comes to a stop."

Romani frowned. "Why you?"

"The quickest one needs to be the one to get the most damage or we'll just get hurt. I think I can be fast enough." He told her.

Before Romani could argue him, Horsehead regained their attention by trying to stampede over them both. Only their quick reflexes saved them from certain death. Horsehead continued to attack Link and ignored Romani as if it felt she was no real threat to it. She proved it wrong by firing another arrow at it's back, hitting it in the left shoulder. Horsehead reared up again and Link attacked, but at the same time Romani rushed forward to cut it as well. "What did Romani tell you about having all the fun Grasshopper?"

Horsehead appeared to be slowing down with the bloodloss and the fact that it's blood was freezing on it's skin. Frostbite was potential but unlikely since it was a monster that seemed suited for the cold but not impervious. Link drew it's attention and Romani got ready to attack from behind. Only this time, she used a fire arrow, hoping it would do more damage. It hit the back of the skull, making the mane go aflame and Horsehead stamp around erratically. Link was unable to get close enough to do any damage so he threw a deku nut but it had no effect.

The centaur exhaled a large amount of it's weird breathe and it went upwards towards the flames, putting them out. Once Horsehead calmed down he glared at Romani with complete interest in harming her. He striked at her with wild abandon with his swords hoping to chop her to bits. Her already damaged shield was getting several knicks and scratches on it and might have to be replaced later on.

Link tried to stab Horsehead from behind but the centaur tried to kick him. Like with Romani, his mirror shield took the hit for him but the glass shattered and several pieces fell off and into the snow. Unsure what else to do, Link managed to pull out his bow and readied a stone arrow. He fired it, and it impacted Horsehead just above the back of the right kidney. The petrifying effect of the area began to immediately but slowly take effect, and the centaur stopped once it felt it's body become cold and unable to move bit by bit.

The equine beast roared in panic and forgot it's enemies at the moment, running around wildly as if trying to stop the arrow's stony effects. It proved to be futile, as in less than a minute, the creature turned into a large statue and toppled over, shattering upon impact. Once it did, the small blizzard in the room came to a stop and visibility greatly increased for the remaining occupants.

Link and Romani saw a blue light where Horsehead died and entered it. The light took them away to another room with a statue of a woman in a blue dress. The face of the statue appeared to move and the eyes glowed. "Hello young ones. I am Fuyumi, the Goddess of Winter. Thank you for purifying my shrine."

"You're welcome. Can you tell us what's happening here in Holodrum?" Link asked.

"Someone cruel is trying to destroy Holodrum by throwing nature out of order. His name is Onox, and his power is greater than it appears. Without the Rod of Seasons at full power, no one person can stand up to him."

"Good thing we have it then." Romani said.

"You have the rod, but it needs it's power restored. I can restore one-fourth of it's power, the Essence of Winter. With it, you can summon the season of winter to the surrounding area and gain power over water, ice, and snow. It will prove useful, but it won't be enough. You need the other Essences too." Fuyumi told them. When she finished, Link pulled out the rod and saw one of the sides gain a large snowflake emblem on it.

"We will get them and save Din. You can count on it." Link told the goddess.

"In that case you must head for the Spring Shrine next if you wish to minimize your time and rescue the oracle as soon as possible. If you don't it will take much longer than you or Holodrum can afford." Fuyumi warned.

"What do you mean?" Romani asked.

"Once you leave this shrine, it will be the first day of winter, regardless of the amount of time you actually spent in here. When you finish each shrine, the same will happen with their respective seasons. To reach your goal in the shortest amount of time, you must gain the powers of spring, summer, and autumn in that order."

Link and Romani looked stunned. "But... but if we do that, Din might not last that long."

"There is no other alternative." Fuyumi told them. "And do not worry about the oracle's life. Onox cannot afford to kill her or else his work will be for nought."

"Why?" They asked together.

"I'm afraid our time is up. You will learn more from the next goddess you help. Head for the Spring Shrine." Fuyumi answered.

Before the two teens could ask anything more, the room brightened until they saw nothing but white.

* * *

Link and Romani found themselves to be standing outside the Winter shrine holding the Rod of Seasons, and it was still snowing outside. "What do you think we should do next?" Link asked.

"First, I want to get somewhere warm. Then, I'd like to get back to Horon and confirm the date." Romani answered.

"Sounds good to me. Think the band is still there?"

Romani shook her head. "Probably not, but I'm hoping. It would be nice to see a familiar face."

"Mine not good enough anymore?" Link joked.

Romani smiled and kissed his cheek. "You know what I mean. Now let's get going."

The two then left back towards Horon, unaware that they were being watched by two witches using a crystal ball in a hidden lair far away.

"So they got one down and have three more to go?" One of the witches cackled.

"I guess Onox was right about them; they will prove both troublesome and helpful to us." The other stated.

"You sure it's wise to just let them roam around and get stronger?"

The second witch scoffed. "Like they can prove to be a threat. Besides, we need the Flame of Sorrow to be at full strength. What could provide more sorrow then for the people to have hope in someone being able to rescue the oracle only to have them fail at the last minute?"

"Yes, that will prove most effective. But we should still monitor them to guarantee they won't prove too dangerous to our plans." The first replied.

"Again, they can't be a threat to us. And we still have two more countries to ruin."


	12. A Walk Around Horon

_I don't own Legend of Zelda. If I did the games would tie in together better and there would be a few different ones added in. _

Part One: Oracle of Seasons

Chapter Twelve: A Walk Around Horon

Link and Romani managed to return to Horon village after about a day's travel. Fortunately the weather was favorable for them once they left the area around the Winter Shrine. Even so, they wished Epona was there to make the trip a little easier for them both. At least now they could take a bit of a break.

The two arrived at Horon and saw that any damage done to it by Onox was repaired now. And the weather was more appropriate for summer now. Several people outside were sitting in the shade trying to cool off. Link and Romani quickly had to uninsulate themselves to avoid sudden heat sickness.

"Where do you think the others are?" Link asked, referring to the band members.

Romani shrugged. "Not a clue. Romani doesn't know this town at all."

"Something tells me we won't get much of a chance to get familiar with it either." Link added.

"Oh well. We might as well enjoy today then. How about we take the day off?" Romani asked, making Link give her a questioning look. "Why not? We can't go anywhere until we fix or replace our shields, and according to that woman from the shrine we can't rescue Din until this autumn at the earliest. So why not make today a relaxing one?"

"You got a point. Besides, we haven't had a chance to do something like that for a while. Ever since Fierce and Majora... did what they did."

Romani slowly nodded and tried not to cry. "I hate those two. If it weren't for them, Cremia would..." She trailed off, no longer able to hold in her tears. Link hugged her and she wept into his chest. "Why did she have to die?"

"I don't know. She didn't deserve it. But at least we avenged her."

Romani nodded. "Yeah, and she told me she's in a better place now. Maybe she's watching us now."

"I hope she looks away once in a while. How will we ever have privacy again?" Link asked.

Romani chuckled. "Thinking of anything specific that you wouldn't want Cremia to see, Grasshopper?"

"I'm not saying." He told her with an amusing look. "C'mon, let's find a shop that will do something about our shields."

The walk around Horon took them a long time. At least it was simpler in structure than Clocktown had been. In fact Link likened it more to Kakariko than any other place he had been, but it was still different. Many of the buildings were a type of shop with a residential area added on top or behind it, allowing the shop owner to start work and go home quickly. He saw this structural concept used in Hyrule and Termina before, but apparently Holodrum used it more. Further observations showed they didn't use just it, allowing some homes and shops to be separate buildings.

Horon offered several things Link and Romani were familiar with already. There were market kiosks full of wares, restaurants serving various dishes, game shops with differing challenges and prizes, and variety stores. Some were different than what they were used to seeing. One building sold just clocks and another sold pets, which surprised Link and Romani since they had only ever seen people with dogs. After a long look around town and a few unseasonal temperature changes they finally found a shop that tended to weapons.

They entered and were greeted by a tall man with thinning grey hair and wire glasses. He wore a red and white striped shirt and had a short beard. "Welcome to my store. My name's Norton. How can I help you?"

"Can you do repairs?" Link asked as he pulled out his shield to show the damage. Romani followed.

Norton took a close look. "To be honest, I'm more of a replacer for damaged weapons than a repairman. I do know some ways to fix things, but frankly I think your shield boy is beyond my abilities. I've never seen a shield with glass on it before. You might be better off getting a new one." He then raised his eyes to look at them directly. "How exactly did it get broken? And for that matter, why do you kids have weapons anyway?"

"It's a long story." Link told him.

"Summarize it then." Norton replied.

Romani answered before Link could. "We work for the oracle and even though we might be young, we are experienced warriors. Our shields got badly damaged in a recent battle on the oracle's behalf and we need them fixed or replaced quickly to do our job properly."

The shopkeeper looked impressed. "Really? You work for the oracle? What's she like in person?"

"She's a friendly, playful person." Link answered.

"We haven't seen her use her abilities yet, but she is a talented dancer." Romani added.

Norton nodded, then looked back at the shields again. "Well, I can maybe have the girl's shield fixed before closing time, noon tomorrow at the latest. It depends on how badly the integrity of the metal has been corrupted. The other shield I can take a look at, but I still recommend a new shield."

"We'll check back later then. When would be a good time?"

"Try 8:00 tonight. And I'll need 250 rupees for this. Price may go up to 300 if you get new ones instead."

Link and Romani looked thru their wallets. 250 was a big price for them with only a thousand between them, but it wasn't anything they couldn't recover soon enough. They paid the price and Norton went in back with their shields. With nothing else to do, they went back outside.

"What do we do to kill time?" Romani asked. "I saw their game shops but to be honest I don't think they'd really entertain us anymore."

"Yeah, having to fight real battles is much more of a rush than target practice."

Romani looked at the sky. "It is getting late. We could try to get a room at an inn or find a campsite nearby."

"I think I saw a hotel that way." Link said pointing east. "It may cost us, but it's worth it compared to sleeping in snowstorms for days."

Romani smiled and intertwined her fingers with his. "I hope they have warm bathes."

"I hope they're co-ed." Link said, earning himself a playful elbow jab to the ribs from his blushing girlfriend. "What? We have swimsuits don't we?"

"Sure, that's exactly what you had in mind." Romani said sarcastically but with a smirk.

"Hey, I just realized something." Link said, changing the subject. "If what Fuyumi said is true, then we both missed our birthdays."

Romani blinked. "You're right. What do we do about that?"

Link shrugged. "We'll worry about that later. Let's go find that hotel room first."

* * *

"Master Onox, I felt something powerful around one of the four shrines." A small orange gargoyle-like creature said to a man in white armor.

"As did I. It appears the resistance is making it's move."

"Should I eliminate them?"

"No Vire, let them continue for now." Onox said.

"But why? Surely you're not underestimating them, even if they are inferior to you?"

Onox sat down on his throne. "No I'm not. I simply feel that my conquest of this land would be more exciting if someone rose from the fires to stand against me. If I were to take over and destroy Holodrum easily, that would be boring."

"Then what are you going to do? Wait for them to come to you?" Vire asked, bothered by the whole idea.

"If they last that long." Onox said nonchalantly. "Think about it my faithful minion. Capturing Din was simple, and we can't kill her without someone else becoming the new oracle, whom we don't know is selected and would have to hunt for all over again."

"What do you mean by that Master?" Vire asked.

Onox shifted his weight to get more comfortable. "Think about it. Do you honestly believe we're the first to target any of the oracles for something? They're prepared for situations like this. The fact that the temple is gone, the oracle was hiding, and something is dwelling in the shrines should tell you that. So of course they had a disciple selected to replace the oracle if the current one dies. If we kill Din, her power will be transferred to her chosen replacement."

The gargoyle thought it over. "So you're keeping her contained to guarantee no one else can put the seasons back in order for her?" The armored man nodded. "But what about those that will come to you later? How do you know one of them isn't the replacement?"

"I don't. But as long as Din lives, they can't anything."

"Even so, may I keep an eye on them and see if I can determine who Din chose as the next oracle?"

"Indeed. Do so, but don't let them see you."


	13. Spring in Holodrum

_I don't own Legend of Zelda. If I did the games would tie in together better and there would be a few different ones added in. _

Part One: Oracle of Seasons

Chapter Thirteen: Spring in Holodrum

The next day, after a warm night's rest in Horon's inn, Link and Romani were back on their quest to restore the Rod of Seasons. Norton was able to fix Romani's shield, but couldn't make a working mirror shield for Link. So the Hylian had to settle for a regular shield again. He was surprised to see it was an exact replica of the shield he had when he left Hyrule years again.

"So, where do we go now?" Link asked.

"I don't know. We weren't old where the next shrine is by either Din or Fuyumi." Romani complained as she wiped some sweat off her forehead. "Maybe we should just look for a place that constantly feels like spring."

Link nodded. "Let's check the map so we at least get some clue where to go besides the lake and the village."

Romani pulled out their map of Holodrum and unfolded it. She was surprised to see a small glow emitting on the left-hand side. It was a small dot in the western region of Holodrum marked as swampland, which was connected to Woodfall in southern Termina. "What's that?"

Link took a look. "I guess that Din or Fuyumi did leave us a few clues to make this easier."

"That's good. So we need to head northwest of here towards this river." Romani said while pointing at the marked destination. "At least it'll be warm." As soon as she uttered those words, a small amount of rain began to suddenly fall from the sky. Link gave her a playful dirty look. "Don't say a word Grasshopper."

* * *

The trip towards the spot marked on the map took them three days. Holodrum was a little bigger than Termina and they had no warp songs that worked for the area or a horse to ride.

The surrounding area was much like Woodfall had been last time they saw it, when it wasn't poisoned. The section they were in was on the edge so it was drier and easier to walk thru, a blend of swamp and woodland. But it was comfortably warm with a clear sky, making it feel like spring. So they knew they were on the right track. The problem was that spring in a swamp was a very humid setting. And humid swamps tended to be misty in the mornings and rainy in the afternoons, much to the teen's displeasure.

Right now it was mid-afternoon and it was quite rainy. Luckily they both kept an umbrella in hammerspace so they weren't drenched by the storm. There was no wind so they weren't too cold but the sky was completely covered by dark grey clouds. At least there was no lightning or thunder.

"Where exactly are we supposed to go?" Link asked.

"I can't say. I don't want to risk getting the map wet in this weather." Romani answered. "I think we keep going north though."

"Didn't it say our destination is near some small lake or something?" Link asked.

"Yeah, I think. I do know it's near a river for sure."

"Let's find a river then. That shouldn't be hard."

Romani looked around. "I don't see a river anywhere. Or hear one over the rain."

Link sighed. "I guess that means we just keep doing what we're doing right now."

* * *

Night came and the rain died down to a mere drizzle. Parts of the sky were still covered by clouds and others were clear and starry. The wind still was barely around but the humidity in the air gave them a chill still. Knowing they wouldn't find anything else tonight, they set up their tent and went to sleep.

The next day they had some luck as there was no rain. There was plenty of water droplets dripping off the leaves of the plants and plenty of puddles too in the now muddy ground. There were no signs of any animals, not even insects unless you counted earthworms.

It was quiet, too quiet for a swamp. Link knew that for a fact.

"Something's wrong." He whispered to his friend.

"Any idea what?" Romani asked.

"Nope, but I doubt it's natural."

Romani made sure all her weaponry was in place and easy reach. Confident, she and Link took down their tent and looked around trying to decide just where to go from here. They briefly checked their map and thought they may need to head north, and after checking for the sun's position they found north was behind them. So that's where they headed.

The undergrowth was quite overgrown giving them almost no trail to walk done. Fortunately their swords did the same job machetes were designed for. When they chopped away the ferns and shrubs they saw no insects flying from the foliage, making them more concerned.

They briefly stopped when they both unknowingly stepped into an ankle-deep puddle. Nothing happened other than their boots getting muddy and soaked, and they stepped out right away. Then they both pulled out their deku masks and changed to their living plant forms for easier mobility thru the swamp.

"This is so much better." Romani stated as she skipped over the puddles. "Why didn't we think of this before?"

"You gotta admit this swamp is drier than the one in Termina. Up until now at least." Link commented.

"But aren't the two connected according to the map?" Romani asked.

Link has to jump over a log before he could respond. "The area just must be different. I mean, the Gerudo Valley in Hyrule has less water than Ikana after all and the only thing separating them is an even bigger desert."

They had to stop when they came across a gentle river. Romani carefully tried to figure out it's width. "Romani's not sure we can hop across. I think it's too wide for us."

Link took off his deku mask and pulled out his zora mask. "Not a problem."

Romani smirked then took off her own mask. "Do you ever not have the right equipment?"

"Sometimes. Like when I turned 17 and had to go help the sages. I had to practically replace everything I once had one at a time." Link said after he placed on his zora mask.

Romani did the same. "Imagine how much tougher this would be if we had to do that here."

Fortunately it wasn't too deep for them as Zora, although in their normal forms they'd probably have to tread the water to get around. For their Zora forms the water only came up to their necks. When they got to the middle of the river, Romani felt something bite her leg. "Yowch." She cried, than instinctively created her electric barrier to drive the mystery biter away. After that she moved faster and they both got out of the water. She inspected her leg and saw bite marks but nothing that would make her limb. Nevertheless, when she took her mask off she wrapped some bandages around her right calf to help it heal. It would heal in no time thanks to the magic power given to her by the Great Fairy, but for now she'd at least prevent infection and bleeding.

The two took off their masks. "Are we any closer?" Link asked. "And is it just me or is the swamp still unnaturally quiet?"

Romani pulled out their map again and glanced it over as she replied. "It's not just you, and I think we're at most a few minutes away. We just got to keep going north."

Link pulled out his sword and shield. "Even so, I'm going to be ready for something."

Romani pulled out her own gear. "Me too."

The two trekked northward more, and came to a stop when they reached a thick and tall cluster of shrubs. They looked as if they had been specifically planted there by someone but not trimmed to look anymore out of place than they already did. Link and Romani slowly looked thru the gaps to see what was on the other side.

The first feature they noticed was a cliffside at the base of a large mountainside with a waterfall that fed a stretched-out lake. The lake went out both out of their sights to their left and right, making them unable to see any connecting rivers from their position. Many flowers of differing colors were scattered in the grassy field separating them from the lake and many reeds were in the shallow end of the water.

"Do you see that Grasshopper?" Romani asked quietly while pointing at the waterfall's base. At the sides were some curved S-shape lines carved out of the rock, as if decorating something. "Romani thinks there's something behind the waterfall."

Link nodded. "Hey, did you notice there's still no noise?" Despite the presence of a waterfall, there was still a blanket of total silence over the area. "Something's gotta be here doing that."

"I think it's starting to affect us too. I'm having a hard time hearing you now Link." Romani commented.

"Then I guess we'll have to speak louder."

The ranchgirl frowned. "I _was_ speaking louder."

It suddenly started to rain again with a little wind blowing away debris, neither part of the weather making any noise. Not seeing any threats, the two stepped out into the open. They walked slowly, expecting trouble, and tredded the lake expecting no less. Fortunately they reached the waterfall without obstacle. When they got there they saw there was an open space behind the water and crawled in from the sides where the water was less crushing. They climbed onto semi-dry land and shook their bodies. When they felt comfortable, they saw there was a door at the back of the small cavern. A door with the same carved decoration on it's sides they saw outside. The only thing out of place besides the door itself was a rock that stuck out of the wall as if it was a lever

With nothing needing to be said, Link and Romani approached the door and pulled down the rock-lever. The door opened with a small gust of wind that smelled like flowers flowing from within, and they stepped inside.


	14. Spring Shrine 1

_I don't own Legend of Zelda. If I did the games would tie in together better and there would be a few different ones added in. _

Part One: Oracle of Seasons

Chapter Fourteen: Spring Shrine Part One

The entrance room of the shrine Link and Romani entered reminded Link of the Forest Temple. The walls, floor, and ceiling were tiled with faded red slabs but there were vines and ivy sprouting out of almost every gap and crack. The plants looked healthy despite the lack of sunlight, and yet there was a lantern on the ceiling that seemed to mimic the sun but not as brightly. Another feature was that the scent from the plants was stale from a lack of fresh air.

At the far end of the room was a red door with some faded blue bricks outlining it and a perch above it, making it look like the entrance of a house or something. The perch had a spiderweb attached to it but not one a skultula would make. Speaking of which, there were two skultulas on the walls slowly crawling down towards them. But unlike other times Link saw the giant arachnids, these ones made absolutely no noise as they moved. Link didn't bother looking up at the ceiling to see if any skultulas lurked there waiting to drop in front of him since for some reason those types were impossible to see until they actually came down, no matter how much he looked. Heck even Navi and Tatl couldn't detect those ones until after they pounced.

Nevertheless, Link double-checked and saw nothing he hadn't seen before. Romani did the same and was the first to approach the door. A pair of keese silently dropped off the perch and flew at her. She swung her sword and got rid of them with ease. Then she opened the door while Link got next to her.

Instead of a hallway, the door led to a large room that looked like a garden in bloom. Another lantern was on the ceiling providing a sort of sun for the room. Grass covered the floor so much you'd swear it was an outdoor meadow, with flowers, shrubs, and a single oak tree in the center of the room. A few butterflies flew around but no other animals were seen. There were flowers of virtually every color spread out, and many white-with-purple-stripes ones surrounded the base of the tree. One thing they didn't see were any doors.

Link and Romani shared a look. "Where do you think we should start?" She asked.

"What did you say?" He asked.

Romani looked confused. "Why are you just mouthing your... wait, I can't hear myself either."

"Is something wrong?" Link asked, seeing her try to talk but no noise coming out of her lips. Romani then snapped her fingers several times, and at the third time they came to the same conclusion. There was absolutely no sound of any kind inside this place, not even their own voices.

'This could hinder us a bit if we can't communicate or hear anything around us.' Link thought.

Romani pointed her finger out and swung her arm back and forth. Link shrugged. With no other plan, Romani headed for the nearest wall in search of a clue and Link joined her. A close look at the wall showed no specific features so they moved alongside it to see more. They didn't find a door, but they did see a large crack in the brickwork that Link recognized right away.

The Hylian boy pulled out a bomb, lit it, and placed it at the base of the wall before he and the Terminian girl got some distance. The bomb exploded silently but with no less force than it was supposed to have. A hole appeared in the wall and showed another room for them to enter, which they did.

The room they entered had three rows of moving spikediscs going from one side of the room to the other. Two were in each row, with only a single block separating them but at the same time making them move faster in their limited space. On the far end of the room was a ladded that went up to the base of another extension of the room they couldn't see from where they were standing.

Link walked up to the first block and climbed on top of it, knowing this was the safest way thru this trap. Romani followed him when he stepped down on the other side. They repeated this process one at a time until they reached the ladder and climbed up.

"It's so irritating that I can't talk to you when you're right in front of me." Romani told him even though she was aware he wouldn't hear her, just read her lips amateurly.

"I wish I could hear you. I'm going to be so glad when this is over." He told her.

They saw a door for them to go thru, and they did. There was only a small piece of floor for them to stand on, with a ladder leading back down for them. The room itself was circular, the floor just being a staircase that spiraled counterclockwise down to a lower level. Seeing nowhere else to go, the two climbed down the ladder and descended the stairs, which spiraled around three times.

When the stairs ended, they reached a room that was quite flooded. The water had to be no less than four feet deep with the ceiling only ten feet above the surface. The bottom steps of the stairs were even submerged. Fortunately for them there was a wooden walkway for them to walk across, which would help since the far side of the room couldn't be seen from their position.

Link wished he had some paper and a pen on him so he could write something to Romani then. He wanted to tell her to be on her guard, even if such comment was unnecessary here. He still concerned himself with her well-being so he couldn't help it, even though he knew she could handle herself.

The two teens stepped onto the wooden bridge cautiously, as if it might break under their weight. So far so good, but the fact that they couldn't hear a creak if one was made didn't soothe their nerves. To make themselves feel better, both grabbed the railing on either side with one hand and continued forward.

"Ooh look, goldfish." Romani silently exclaimed when she looked into the water, excited as she had not expected to see such a thing here. Some kind of monster, yes, but not plain and simple goldfish.

Link didn't hear a word and kept his eyes on the walls. He noticed there were four doors in this room, going in a zigzag order starting on his left side then right then left again and then right again, with the bridge leading to each. He pointed ahead of them after he regained his friend's attention, and Romani nodded in understanding. Fortunately the door wasn't unlocked, and it looked like the others ahead weren't either. For some reason that bothered Link.

The room they entered didn't look any different then the one they just came from, only square-shaped and the wooden platform came to a stop in the center. There was a lot of water there too and a few lilypads in it. A buzzing sound like mosquitoes close to the ear could be heard, but no source was seen.

Link and Romani gasped when they realized they could hear again, and now they could even hear their gasps. "Can you hear that?" They asked each other together, and smiled when they heard themselves speak again.

Their joy didn't last too long once they saw what was causing the buzzing noise. They saw six large purple mosquitoes, each the size of a normal terrier. When the mosquitoes tried to swarm them, Link and Romani swung their swords and effortlessly sliced three of them each in half. After the bugs were killed a small chest dropped from the ceiling onto the end of the platform.

"That was a little too easy." Romani said with some disappointment.

"I guess whoever built these shrines didn't think two people would be going thru it at once." Link commented.

Romani shrugged. "Let's see what we got."

Link opened the chest and saw a strange blue feather was the only thing inside. "This is it?" He asked as he held it up.

"Wait a minute." Romani reached into her dress's left pocket and pulled out an identical blue feather. "It's just like the one I got from that thief in Ikana."

"Swell, but what does it do?" Link asked. Normally Navi or Tatl would explain the nature of the tools he acquired if they were new to him. But he had no fairy partner this time.

"We'll find out. For now, don't put it away with the rest of your stuff. Do as I do and keep it actually on you." The redhead told him as she pocketed her own feather. "Personally, I think it may be what helped me defeat the monster at Ikana's temple. The fairies did say something about me being lighter and able to jump better than before when the fight was over."

Link placed his new feather inside his hat, knowing it would be safe there. "I guess we'll find out in time. And in case we can't hear each other again outside this room, be careful Romani."

Said ranchgirl blushed but swatted his chest. "_You_ be careful Grasshopper."

The two left the room, and quickly found they heard nothing again when they tried speaking. Undaunted by this strange condition, they just walked down the platform and reached the second doorway. Since it wasn't locked, they went inside and saw a room identical to the one they had just been in.

"This is a little weird." Link stated, both noting they could hear each other again but more focused on whatever creature was in here.

Two octoroks burst out of the water on either side of the platform. These ones fired off their hardened spit bullets in quicker succession than normal, making it difficult to reflect one attack while avoiding the other. Link and Romani raised their shields to defend themselves and the octoroks showed no signs of slowing. Romani took a chance to ready her bow but she was hit and knocked on her rear. Link positioned himself in front of her to keep them from hurting her further, finding it difficult to aim the deflected bullets back at the octoroks this time.

"Romani, as soon as you can get up fire some arrows from behind me. See if that works."

Romani carefully took aim with the arrow next to Link's shoulder. During a brief moment when Link shifted the shield towards the left octorok, she fired at the right one and made the hit. It quickly died, and as it did Romani switched sides and fired at the left octorok. She wasn't sure what really got it, the arrow or the deflected attack from Link's shield, but it didn't matter either way.

With the two octoroks gone, another chest appeared. Link opened it and found a huge amount of rupees inside. "Alright! That should put us back in a stable place money-wise." They split the money between themselves, their wallets now containing a value of 800 rupees apiece.

"I wonder when this will get tough." Romani claimed.

"Something tells me it will now that you've said that." Link commented.

"Whoopsie." She said sheepishly.

They left the room and continued down the silent flooded corridor. They had to stop when the platform was broken, as if something heavy had fallen on it some time ago. The gap between them and the other end was too big to jump across and they saw no hookshot target. Unable to hear each other, the duo just shared a confused look, silently asking each other what to do.

Link then got an idea. He pulled out his bow and charged up an ice arrow. He fired it at the water and created an icefloat to give them something to cross on. He motioned for Romani to go first and she tried to jump onto it. However, instead of landing on the ice, she unexpectedly soared across the gap and landed on the wooden platform.

Link dropped his jaw and his bow at seeing that. Romani looked confused too, but then looked like an idea struck her. She pulled out her blue feather and showed it to him, indicating that might have been the reason. Seeing the icefloat was still there if she was wrong, Link put his bow back in place and jumped. The next thing the Hylian boy knew, he was practically soaring across the gap in the bridge and landed next to his partner.

'Okay, this feather is definitely going to come in handy later on.' He told himself.


	15. Spring Shrine 2

_I don't own Legend of Zelda. If I did the games would tie in together better and there would be a few different ones added in._

Part One: Oracle of Seasons

Chapter Fifteen: Spring Shrine Part Two

Link and Romani approached the next door and went inside the next room. This room looked no different than the previous ones, a wooden platform surrounded by water with a bridge connecting it to the door. But it did look a little bigger.

"See anything?" Romani asked, mostly to confirm she could hear in here like the other rooms. 'Why can we only hear in some rooms but not others?'

"Not yet." Link answered, proving they could hear here. "But I'm sure it'll be annoying."

A croaking sound like a loud frog could be heard and it started to grow, making the two teens draw their swords in anticipation. Link looked up and saw a creature he was familiar with, a large orange-and-black frog called a Gekko. Unlike the first two Link fought against, this one didn't look like it wanted to fight them right away. Maybe it didn't even notice them. Link sure hoped that was the case. It would have been an easy victory then.

Before he could ready his bow, the large frog dropped from the vine-covered ceiling and landed on one of the posts of the platform.

'Guess I spoke too soon.' The Hylian told himself bitterly now that he couldn't catch this thing off-guard. Fortunately he still had his bow out and now ready so he fired an arrow. Gekkos weren't too agile so it took the hit and almost fell off the post. Romani rushed forward to try and slice it in half, but it jumped to the post behind her and made it's call for reinforcements.

From out of the water burst several new creatures, all of which were about the size of Link's foot. These creatures looked like tadpoles, but obviously not ordinary ones. For one thing, they were yellow, almost mustard-colored, and had two legs already but they looked more like bird-of-prey legs than frog legs. They also had a small frill on their backs that made it look more threatening than it probably was. Even so, these tadpoles most likely weren't harmless.

Each tadpole made a chirping sound like a bird but underwater and jumped at Link and Romani. It was easy to block them with their shields but the tadpoles clinged to it and tried to get around them. That caught both of them by surprise so they both ended up getting a few bites on their arms. Apparently these tadpoles have sharp teeth.

Link and Romani had to drop their shields after being bit. Romani reflexively punched the tadpole on her forearm as hard as she could, her sword still in her free hand. The tadpole let go and fell to the ground. Before it could get up she kicked it away into the water.

Link did his best to ignore the bites and aimed his bow at the Gekko, which had climbed onto the ceiling like he expected. Hitting it had been easy and it fell into the water. At the sound of the splash all the strange tadpoles jumped back into the water too. "I don't like the looks of that." Link commented. 'If only I still had Din's Fire, then I'd be able to get rid of them right away. But it hasn't worked since I left Hyrule for some reason like the other two spells.'

The Gekko came out of the water and held onto the wall in front of Link and Romani, with all the tadpoles surrounding it. Each one of the tadpoles had their throats expand, like a frog when croaking, and then they spat out something that looked like red tar. Having no interest in seeing what that did if it hit them, the two teens raised their shields to block it. The red slime stuck to the metal and slowly oozed off, but otherwise did nothing else.

The tadpoles looked ready to fire again. Before they did, Romani quickly prepared a fire arrow and shot at the Gekko. It connected and burned the monster frog briefly, and the closest tadpoles got fire too and ended up exploding like bombs. The Gekko jumped back into the water and the remaining tadpoles followed.

"How many are left?" Romani asked.

"I'd say about six, maybe seven. I wasn't really counting."

The Gekko came back out of the water and onto the wall again, this time on the wall to the duo's left and closer to the ceiling. Link and Romani looked carefully this time and saw their were eight tadpoles surrounding the Gekko. This time they jumped away from the frog and landed back on the platform. To protect themselves, the two teens stood back-to-back and performed one of their trickiest maneuvers, where they both performed a spinslash attack together. It was hard to do because if one of them moved faster than the other, then the slower one would risk getting hit with the attack too.

Romani spun in sync with her partner, but saw she wasn't moving fast enough. To protect herself, she ducked down and curled up, allowing Link's sword to pass over her. She placed her shield in front of her to halt any tadpole from attacking her. Unfortunately one attacked her from the right side and bit her hard right on her shoulder. "Ow!" She turned her sword in her hand and bent her arm swiftly so she stabbed the tadpole in it's head, killing it and making it fall off her. "How many people have to deal with tadpole bites? I'm not explaining _that_ one to a red potion seller."

Link's attack ended and he saw there were only three tadpoles left now and the Gekko was hiding on the ceiling above him. Not sure which to attack first, he settled on the remaining tadpoles first. No complex maneuvers or sword techniques, he chose to just swing at them until they died. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Romani look up and rise to her feet quickly with her sword up. "What the-?" He asked himself in surprise since she was close to cutting him with her sword in the process.

"Got him." Romani claimed, making Link look at the end of her sword, where the Gekko was impaled above his head and struggling to get free. The redhead swung her sword and made the frog pinned to the platform. "It was trying to drop on top of you just then."

"Thanks."

The three remaining tadpoles went right to it in an effort to help it, but Link sliced them apart before they could accomplish anything. In the process the Gekko could cut up more and died. This time, like the other times Link had encountered this type of creature, it turned into a normal frog, albeit a wounded one.

A treasure chest appeared and without hesitation the duo opened it. Inside they saw a green key that looked similar to a standard boss key but lacked the jewel in the handle. Link pocketed it after showing it to Romani. "Onto the next room I guess."

"Any idea how big this place is?" The ranchgirl asked.

Link shrugged. "Nope, I haven't seen a map to this place yet. But if it's anything like the Winter Shrine, it's probably not that big and we only had a few more rooms to go thru."

"In total silence." Romani unhappily added.

The Hylian boy nodded. "Let's go get it over with then so we can hear each other whenever we want again."

The two left the room and returned to the flooded hallway. Following the platform, they reached the last door in the hall and went in. It looked the same as the others, flooded with a wooden platform stretching out to the center of the room. The only creatures in here were two blue tekites standing on the water. Link and Romani effortlessly destroyed them with a few arrows before the big spiders could approach them. Another chest appeared and this one contained replacement arrows for the two teens.

The two sat down for a minute to relax and catch their breath. They were good fighters, but their stamina was not without limits. "Except for the last room, this hasn't been much of a challenge has it Grasshopper?" Romani asked.

"No not really. At least not compared to what I'm used to." He replied. "Knowing my luck the main monster here is going to be tough enough to make up for it."

"Why do you always jinx yourself like that?" Romani asked with a sigh.

Link smirked. "Would you rather I not say anything? Just go about my business like a mute?"

Romani looked mock-horrified. "Don't even joke about that. It's bad enough you're silent here. I don't want to imagine you being like that all the time."

Feeling better, the two got up and left the room. With no doors left in the hallway, they came to the end with had a spiral staircase up, just like the one they took to come down to this level on the other end. They went up and soon reached a circular room with a ladder that reached to a hollow in the wall. It was a mirror-image of the route they had used earlier. They climbed the ladder and opened the door in the hollow to the next room.

They had been expecting another room with moving spikediscs like before, but this room was different. There was no floor, only pillars sticking up from a black abyss that one needed to jump across to get across. Link and Romani could easily see from their position that sticking to the right side of the room would be the quickest way athru, but they saw no threats which didn't settle them. No visible enemies usually meant they were well hidden, not absent.

Link jumped onto the first pillar and so far nothing ambushed him. Romani followed and they continued like this until the third pillar. Before they reached it, a skultula dropped down, halting their progress. Link armed his bow and waited for the moment when the big spider would turn and expose it's soft underside. It did, and the arrow connected, making the spider fall down and into the abyss.

"Why do they always do that?" Romani curiously asked, briefly forgetting that no one could hear her.

The two jumped to the next two pillars before another skultula appeared. Like the last time, it turned and Romani fired the arrow this time, sending it falling. There were no other apparent threats so they made it to the other side effortlessly after that. There was no door, only a solid wall with an obvious large crack in it. One bomb later, there was a hole in the wall and the two teens found themselves right back where they had started, the large room that looked like a meadow with an oak tree in the center. They had gone in a circle.

"There must be something we missed." Link told himself despite the forced silence.

The two walked along the wall, wondering if there was something they didn't notice earlier. It was likely since they only glanced around the room before rather than look all around. When they got to the point in between the two breaks in the wall they had created earlier, they noticed something they couldn't see well from a distance, a lever pointing up against the wall. Link grabbed ahold of it and attempted to pull it down, but it struggled to budge. He tried again, this time with a little more strength, and it slowly started to creak down. He got the impression that if he could hear anything it would sound like quite rusted.

Link had to stop for a moment, his arms tiring out. Fortunately the lever didn't move back in place. He tried again, this time Romani holding it with him, and they both pulled down with all their might. As they pulled it, a door that had been unnoticeable began to slowly pull up.

Then suddenly the lever snapped in their hands.

Link and Romani looked at the broken lever in their hands and at the small fragment still attached to the opening mechanism. There was no way they could repair it or open the door the rest of the way as it was now. It looked like they couldn't go any further.

Romani sighed in frustration, then looked at how open the door was. 'Why not? It's worth a shot.' She got on her belly and tried to crawl under thru the open area. She found there as enough room for her so she easily got to the other side. Link saw this and did the same. For him it was a little tighter but not much different than the times when he had been a kid and had to crawl thru tight tunnels.

On the other side they saw a green brick hallway that sloped downward and ended in a red door with a lock on it. When they got there, Link pulled out the green key and inserted it in the lock. It worked and the door opened almost ominously, revealing an almost pitch-black room. The two shared a look before walking inside, and the door closed behind them.


	16. Spring Shrine 3

_I don't own Legend of Zelda. If I did the games would tie in together better and there would be a few different ones added in._

_For those of you that want me to update this more often, review more and I'll be more motivated to do that. And I don't mean the token reviews like 'Update soon', I mean real reviews worth reading. Is that so hard? If the story's worth following it's worth reviewing._

Part One: Oracle of Seasons

Chapter Sixteen: Spring Shrine Part Three 

Link had been in some dark rooms over the years so this was nothing new to him. The bottom of Kakariko's well, the inside of a grave, and let's not forget the Shadow Temple. However this was almost too dark even for something supernatural or sheikah-related. It was almost as if light itself was forbidden to enter this specific area.

"Can you hear me now?" Link asked. Since he couldn't hear himself, he already knew the answer. 'Great, now we can't hear _or_ see.'

Thinking the same thing, Romani pulled out an arrow and aimed forward, turning it into a light arrow. She was actually a little surprised to see that the light actually worked her and then fired. It impacted a wall that briefly appeared covered with unlit torches arranged in a 3x8 grid formation. Both saw this and tried to ready a fire arrow, but a shadow moved in the light before it faded away, making them briefly freeze in anticipation.

They didn't stay frozen for long and both fired a fire arrow. The arrows connected with the wall and each lighted a torch. Surprising both teens, each torch next to the lit ones burst into flames too and the ones near those lit up too until all of them were aflame, lighting the room.

With the room now lit they saw something else in there with them. From the ceiling descended a strange creature. It was a black owl the size of a rhino with wings like a bat. The whites of it's eyes were actually black and it's pupils were white. Two goat horns stood on its head rather than feather tufts to only make it look horned.

'What is that? Kepora Gebora's evil twin?' Link asked himself.

The owl spread its wings and flapped them, creating a wind burst at the two teens. It wasn't that strong, but it did make them struggle to maintain their balance. When it ended, the fire went out and there was just darkness again.

Knowing they couldn't trust their ears in this blinding darkness any more than their eyes, Link and Romani did the only thing they could do, which was fire another set of fire arrows to get more light in the room again. The torches on the wall became lit again, allowing them to see the owl again.

The owl did not like this, and it looked like it wanted to eat the two teens who dared to shine light in this shrine to pure darkness it had established. It flew in place, casting a shadow below it in front of them, and the shadow started to bubble up like steaming water and rise up like some sort of black blob. It reminded Link of the aberration that came out of the well in Kakariko village, only thicker.

This shadow might have become something just as nasty, but Romani hit it with a light arrow before it could fully form. The light practically incinerated the living mass of darkness, as expected.

This upset the owl monster quite a bit. It tried blowing them away by flapping it's wings a lot, and this wind gust pushed both of them back towards the wall behind them. Once some distance had been attained the owl then tried a sort of screech attack, this one creating a sound the two could hear. That wasn't a good thing, as it sounded like nails on a chalkboard in a wood chipper.

Link and Romani both had to drop their weapons to cover their ears, dropping to their knees at the same time. Seeing them momentarily defenseless, the owl rose into the air and got ready to take a dive. Ignoring the pain in his ears, Link grabbed his bow and fired a light arrow at the swooping bird. It hit the monster right in it's open beak, going into its throat.

The attack must have hurt and surprised the beastly bird bird for it lost control and slammed face-first into the floor after taking that hit. Seeing it lay still, the two teens tried to get up and go attack it at close range. However, when they tried to stand up, their legs refused to cooperate.

'Damn, that sound attack must have screwed up our sense of balance. We can barely stand.' Link told himself. 'We don't have time to recover before it tires to. Wait, I got an idea.'

Link pulled out his hookshot and shot it at the owl's wing. The hookshot worked and pulled it close to the bird, making him close enough to attack directly. Romani saw this and did the same, aiming at the right wing. Both used their swords and sliced into the bird's sides and shoulders, hoping to at least render it flightless if they couldn't kill it this way.

The owl struggled to get back on its feet, but the nonstop attacks were making that difficult. Despite the pain it was in, the owl managed to hit them both with its wings, stopping them just long enough to stand up again. Link wasn't willing to risk it still being able to fly, so he tried stabbing it in it's chest. Unfortunately, the feathers on it's front were like armor, making his strike ineffective. The owl took off into the air, but it couldn't fly that high up. It settled for blowing out the lit torches, which Romani quickly relighted with a fire arrow.

'I wonder why it wants this place to be so dark.' Romani asked herself. 'Is it because it's a night animal? Because it has a huge advantage over us if we can't see or hear? Or... is it something more than that? Either way, I'm not going to let it have that advantage.'

The owl landed, making Link smile. 'So it can't stay in the air much now. Just a little more then and we win.' He tried his hookshot again and was pulled towards it. The owl tried batting him away but Link made another few deep cuts on it's bat-like wing. When it screeched in pain, again providing the only hearable sound in the room, Romani fired another light arrow at it's open mouth, hitting the mark perfectly.

The owl landed on it's back and the two teens, recovered from their unbalanced state, went to work cutting it apart. Getting up off it's back proved more difficult for the beastly bird and soon it found itself with both wings severed. While it flopped on the floor like a fish out of water, they both tried hitting a feathered section of it's body, only to find the feathers were too hard for their swords to cut.

"We can't hurt it anymore." Romani told Link, or more accurately mouthed to him.

Link got the gist of her claim and looked over the creature, then looked back at his partner. He smiled and nodded, then came up to its head. Curious, Romani followed. Link raised his sword, and stabbed the owl in its left eye. This worked quite well, and Romani followed with an attack to the right eye when the owl faced her in its struggle.

The two withdrew their swords, hoping they wouldn't have to do anything more here, and blood rushed out of the new wounds. This combined with the blood loss at its shoulder meant the owl monster died after a few more minutes, then decayed rapidly like monsters tend to do. The two teens smiled despite their wariness and saw a portal of light appear in the room. Knowing what to do, the two entered it.

Link and Romani found themselves in a new room, a brighter room, with another statue of a woman in a green dress and a laurel wreath on her head. Like the previous time, the eyes glowed and the mouth formed a grin. "Hello growing ones. I am Harumi, the Goddess of Spring. Many thanks for restoring my shrine to it's glory again. "

"No problem. Can you tell us where Din is?" Link asked.

"That knowledge will do you no good at this time. You still need to restore the missing half of the Rod of Seasons' power. I will restore the Essence of Spring of you." The rod appeared without Link pulling it out and a symbol of a flower appeared on one of it's sides. "Now you can summon the season of spring to wherever you are and have power over plants, wind, and storms. Be careful though, for such a power is dangerous if uncontrolled."

"We'll practice with it then when we get back to Holodrum." Link told her. "We probably should have started that already, but... we had other things on our minds." Romani nodded.

"I strongly recommend you do so. Then head for the Summer Shrine. But be warned, that between each shrine there will be several obstacles to slow you down. Some set in place by Onox and his minions, others simply there by nature's design. Despite the trick of time done by each shrine that has now put you at the vernal equinox, you must hurry and power up the rod as fast as you can. Then take it to the Temple of Seasons. There you will find what you're looking for."

"The Temple of Seasons? But Din said that was taken underground and covered up. How do we get there?"

"That is advice for another time. I can tell you no more. but the Goddess of Summer can. Find her, and be mindful of the two old witches but do not fear the young witch."

"Witches? What witches?" Link asked.

But there was no answer, only the room getting brighter until he could see nothing but white.

When Link could see again, he and Romani stood outside the Spring Shrine, in the cave behind the waterfall. This time, the waterfall sounded a loud louder than before, but it sounded normal.

"You think whatever..." Romani shouted, but stopped when she could hear herself, this time without any problem. She spoke again at a normal volume. "I guess that answers my question about whatever was silencing the area."

"Let's get out of her anyway. I want to be somewhere normal again." Link stated.

"No argument here." The ranchgirl told her boyfriend.

The two ducked thru the waterfall and fell in the lake on the other side of it. They swam across and reached land. Careful listening revealed their were birds in the area and even croaking frogs nearby, overall the kind of sounds one would expect to hear in a swamp. The unnatural silence was gone.

* * *

"Looks like they're halfway done with their little duty." One of the two witches spying on Link and Romani told the other as they gazed into their crystal ball.

"You still sure it's wise to allow them to continue on like this?" The second witch asked. "What if by the end they're actually able to take down Onox? You know these two kids were chosen to save the oracle for a reason."

"I suppose you have a point. In that case, we can set them up for a nasty fall."

Vile the orange gargoyle appeared before them. "I wouldn't do that if I were you. Master Onox requests the right to take these two challengers down himself, after they've done the work of restoring the power of the rod that the oracle chose to hide from him. Let them do the work of gaining power then have them come to him so he can defeat them and take the Rod of Seasons for himself. With that he can steal the power of the Oracle of Seasons and fo whatever he wants with Holodrum and then the world."

Yes, we know the plan. But it's still not a wise choice to allow the only threat to him to grow in strength." The second witch replied.

"You may hinder them by placing obstacles before them, but nothing lethal." Vile told them.

"That will be difficult, but not impossible." The first witch replied.

"I'm sure clever ladies such as yourselves can figure something out." The ghoulish creature said before disappearing.


	17. Road to the Next Shrine

_I don't own Legend of Zelda. If I did the games would tie in together better and there would be a few different ones added in._

Part One: Oracle of Seasons

Chapter Seventeen: The Road to the Next Shrine

The next day, Link and Romani were in a grassy field in the middle of Holodrum, not too far from the western swamp but no longer surrounded by trees. It was like Romani Ranch, a wide open area with plenty of room to practice in. And practice was exactly what the two of them needed.

"Now that I think about it, how exactly do we use this thing?" Link asked as he held the Rod of Seasons in his hands.

"How do you usually use magical items?" Romani asked.

"Usually it needed no explanation. For the arrows it was easy, just put some energy into the arrowhead with a specific element in mind and it would happen. The lens of truth just needed to be placed by the eye and it worked on its own. The only things I really needed to practice with were Dins Fire, Farores Wind, and Nayrus Love, and I lost those when I came to Termina. I think I dropped the charms the fairies gave me when the Skull Kid took off with Epona."

"But you did have to practice with them, right?" Romani asked. "What did you do?"

Link had to think it over for a moment. "The first times I just put some magic in them and saw what they did. Kinda like what I did with most of the weapons I acquired." Romani gave him a look. "What do you expect? All I ever actually learned to do was sword fighting as play with the Kokiri. I never had an actual instructor with me on my trip. The fairies gave me tips and warnings, but never any actual lessons."

Romani looked at the rod. "Okay, so since it's a rod, do you slam the blunt end on the ground or something and say what season you want? Or do you swing it like a wand and say the season you want?"

Link thought it over and still had no idea on what to do here. "Might as well try it." He hit the ground with the rod. "Winter." He said, since that would be the most noticeable change if it worked.

Nothing happened.

"Okay then." Link said before swinging the rod like a bat. "Winter."

Still nothing.

Romani put her hands on her hips. "Why did Din give us a tool and not tell us what to do with it?"

Link groaned. "I know. How can this help us if we can't use it?" He then put it away in hammerspace. "I think we only have one option here."

Romani arched an eyebrow. "What's that?"

"We need to go to Din's temple and see if we can find anything there to help us."

"Go to the temple? But you heard the band. It just disappeared. And Din said it was taken underground. How are we supposed to get there Grasshopper?"

"You got a better idea Ladybug?"

The ranchgirl sighed in defeat. "Sadly, no. But according to the Spring Goddess, we aren't supposed to go there until after we get the two other essences."

"Oh yeah." Link said. "In that case, let's go find the Summer Shrine and practice along the way." He pulled out their map of Holodrum and looked for any clue to reveal the Summer Shrine.

A small glowing dot on the map revealed the location of the next shrine. It was located in the northern side of Holodrum, in a mountain range.

"Hey, are you noticing a pattern here?" Romani pointed out as they walked along, looking at the map. "The Winter Shrine was here, the Spring Shrine was here, and the Summer Shrine was here. South, west, and north. It's almost like a compass."

"Hmm... good point. But if that's true, then the Autumn Shrine should be in the east and so was the Temple of Seasons. Wouldn't that throw the pattern off?" Liink asked.

"Oh you're right. Maybe there's something we're not seeing yet."

"Maybe. I guess all we can do is keep going." Link commented, and received no argument.

* * *

"Finally!" The little demon named Vile said when he spotted his prey. "Where have they been these past few months? No matter, they're dying today anyway." He flew on far ahead of them on the path they appeared to be taking to avoid being spotted and landed on the ground. He pulled out a sack and emptied it, the contents being a pale seed. He clawed out a hole and then planted the seed. "That should give them more than enough trouble. And even if it doesn't, the things that live nearby should."

Laughing, the winged imp took off and flew away. But he stayed close by, as to confirm whether or not this worked.

Link and Romani did indeed stay on one path their trip, and it took them a full day to actually get where Vile had set up his trap. Their path looked like a worn road used to connect two or more villages, so they figured it was a safe route and they had yet to see anyone traveling in either direction. They did see a few forks in the road, but they kept moving towards the mountains. And of course, the entire trip the weather kept changing at unpredictable times.

Right now the weather was summer, and it sure was hot. Romani had to fan herself and pull the collar on her blouse from her body. "It's too hot. Please tell me there's some shade around here."

Link looked on ahead. "There's a forest right ahead of us. That should give us plenty of shade."

Romani started running forward and Link ran to catch up. Their road took them directly into a forest that so far looked normal. Romani sat down right against a tree trunk in the shade and sighed. "That's so much better."

LInk sat down next to her. "I'm sure if you had waited a few minutes we'd be covered in snow any second now."

Romani shrugged. "I didn't want to wait. Besides, the closer we get to the Summer Shrine, the more like summer it will get. We can't count on snow anymore until we learn to use that rod." She then closed her eyes and looked forward. "Tell me again why we can't just use our goron masks to get around?"

"Because we don't know anything about this place and rolling around like that here could be reckless." Link answered.

Romani reopened her eyes and turned to face him again, but before she could reply, something she hadn't noticed before in her mad dash to find shade now caught her eye. "Whoa, that's odd." She pointed ahead of them. Link turned that way and saw a red flower as tall as a young cow and the flower itself as big as a common cucco. "I've never seen a flower that big outside the swamp. And why is it growing here on a road. Wouldn't there be too many people on it for a plant to grow?"

"Maybe this road doesn't see a lot of traffic here." Link suggested, sounding like he didn't believe it. "Then again, there would be more plants growing if that was true. This is odd. Let's check it out."

"You go ahead, I'm staying here a bit longer." The ranchgirl told him.

Link got up and looked at the strange plant without getting close to it. When he got close, the flower moved to fave him, making him jerk back a bit, slightly alarmed. It got worse when the plant suddenly grew gigantic and even sprouted four red-orange venus flytrap-like mouths around it.

Link sighed. "Next time I see something strange, I'm ignoring it."

Romani came up next to him, sword and shield out and ready to be used. "Good idea Grasshopper."

One of the mouths on the plant reached out quickly and tried to either bite or eat one of them, so they jumped to dodge. Link swung his sword but it just bounced off the closed mouth which retracted. "I don't think swords will work here." He called out and then had to jump back to avoid another bite attack from a different venus flytrap.

"Then let's try arrows." Romani stated, putting away her sword and pulling out her bow. She backed up and charged up a fire arrow, certain that would do the trick. She aimed at a random spot, certain that since this was a plant fire would work no matter where it hit, and fired. The arrow connected but the fire fizzled out, managing to only give the plant a dark burn mark around the embedded arrow.

Seeing that arrows didn't work either, Link had one other idea. Reaching into hammerspace, he pulled out one of his stored bombs, lit it, and threw it at the plant. One of the venus flytraps caught it and appeared to swallow it. A few seconds later, the venus flytrap loudly exploded. "Bombs work. Try those." Link told his friend.

Both pulled out a bomb and threw it at the plant from different sides. Link's bomb missed and only angered the plant but Romani's was eaten and destroyed a second mouth. The two both had to go to the other side of the menacing plant to get rid of the remaining venus flytraps. Each threw another bomb and both remaining mouths took the bait. They exploded only seconds apart and it looked like the entire plant was about to collapse. It didn't though, instead it wobbled quite considerably.

"What do we do now?" Romani asked.

"Let's try once more at the base." Link suggested, and they both threw one more bomb apiece at the roots. The two exploded at near identical times, but the plant just became rigidly erect and almost sounded like it wailed for a moment.

"Did it work?" Romani asked.

Before Link could answer, a cracking sound could be heard. It got louder and a crackline seam could now be seen at the base of the plant. After a moment, it got quiet for a moment and the plant fell backwards like a chopped down tree, landing just as hard.

"Timber?" Link joked, making Romani giggle.

The plant quickly decayed into foul-smelling compost, making them both cover their noses. "Let's get out of here." Romani told her friend.

Both turned, but were greeted by a net that came out of nowhere that entangled them both. They were unable to draw out their swords and were unable to keep standing up in the confusion. The net tied itself together, effectively trapping them. Then a few rocks came flying out, hitting both Link and Romani in the head, making them pass out.


	18. The Moblins

_I don't own Legend of Zelda. If I did the games would tie in together better and there would be a few different ones added in._

Part One: Oracle of Seasons

Chapter Eighteen: The Moblins

Link was the first to regain consciousness. When he opened his eyes, he saw he was lying down on a stone floor in what looked like a dungeon room. 'Am I in the Gerudo fortress again? No, how could I be? I'm still in Holodrum, am I?' He looked around and saw Romani still unconscious next to him, but she was unarmed. Further inspection revealed he was too. 'Whoever these guys are, they mean business.'

Seeing he was unbound, Link stood up protectively in front of Romani. There appeared to be no immediate threat, so he approached the door. Looking thru the barred hole, he saw an empty brick wall hallway that turned right about fifteen or so yards ahead. He tried to open the door and found it was locked.

"I expected it to be but it was worth a try." He told himself.

He heard approaching footsteps and wondered if he should get away from the door. Considering how loud they were, he didn't think the ones coming were normal people. Looking back at the still knocked out Romani, he felt it was wiser to stand guard over her rather than see who put them here. At tempted as he was to put some of his weapons out of hammerspace, he didn't want to alert these potential new enemies by being armed.

The door unlocked and slowly opened. Standing there was a large ugly blue creature that looked like a humanoid pig with a small amount of dog-like traits mixed in too. 'Hey, I saw one of these shortly after we came to Holodrum. What did Johvan and the others call it again?'

"Wake up the female. You're coming with me." The creature ordered.

"Why should I?" Link angrily asked.

The creature pulled out a spear and pointed it towards him. "Then your mate gets a new hole in her somewhere."

"Fine, I'll cooperate. But why are we here?"

"Save your questions for later maggot." The creature said before putting the spear away.

Link rocked Romani's shoulders a few time in an effort to wake her up. After a few gentle shakes it seemed to work, but she regained consciousness rather slowly. "Huh? Wha...? Where...?" She sleepily asked.

"I'm not sure where we are Ladybug, but I think we're captives here." He whispered to her. "They took our primary weapons so we can't just fight our way out. At least not yet."

"Get on your feet!" The hostile creature demanded.

Romani sat up and saw the pig-faced thing. "What the hell is that?" She asked, avoiding screaming, and pointing at it.

The thing in question glared at the ranchgirl, though with it's expression it was hard to tell. "I am a Moblin, be sure to remember that you weakling."

"Moblin? You mean those ugly warmongering thugs?" Romani asked, remembering what she had heard about the race from the band members.

'Romani, what are you doing? Do you want him to be pissed off at us?' Link thought.

The moblin sure looked pissed off. "You disrespectful little bitch! You have no understanding of real strength!"

"Bring me my weapons and I'll show you how weak Romani really is." Romani shouted. "Afraid you'll lose? Is that why you had to take our weapons away? Can't handle a fair fight?"

'I think I see what you're doing now Romani.' Link thought as he comprehended her words. 'It's a risky long shot you're taking but it's all we have to use.'

"If it's a fight you want, you'll get it!" The moblin roared with his fist balled up in front of him. "But I'll have to wait for now. The King wants to see you both for some reason."

'That doesn't sound good.' Both teens thought.

* * *

Link and Romani had been led to a large mostly empty room. The structure of it reminded Link of the central room to the Spirit Temple but without the large statue or stairs. There was a door on both sides and what looked like a cove built into the long wall about five meters above the floor. There were a couple of torches on the wall providing light, and nothing notable on the ceiling or floor.

Up in the cove there was a throne, and seated on it was a large blue-green skinned moblin that looked like some kind of monster boar, dressed almost identically to King Zora of Hyrule. On both sides of his throne rested a large neatly-made pile of black orbs that Link and Romani immediately recognized as bombs.

"I am Haljo, King of the Moblins. State your names prisoners." The Moblin King started off with. His voice was low and loud and gruff, but oddly it felt less cruel than Ganondorf's had to Link.

"With all due respect, we would rather not." Romani politely replied.

"I don't believe I was asking." Haljo said, placing a hand on a bomb beside his throne.

Link grimaced. "I am Grasshopper and she is Ladybug." His friend smiled at his clever way of keeping their names hidden.

"Weak names for such weak cretins." A red moblin standing guard beside Haljo muttered.

"If we are weak then why would you bother locking us up?" Link asked.

"Are you two the humans that possess my race's weapons. How did you get ahold of them?" The Moblin King asked.

"We have no idea what you're talking about." Link said through clenched teeth.

"Liar!" The red moblin yelled. But before he could react, the king held his hand out to him, signaling not to do anything.

"Settle down Moro. Save our energy for a worthy battle." Haljo ordered, then looked at the two teens and held out a bomb. "Do you deny that you had these in your possession?"

Link and Romani were confused. "Bombs? No, we had those. Anyone can buy them where we come from."

The king got mad. "So it's true. Somehow the people of this country have been sneaking into my fortress and stealing our weapons. This is grounds for war."

"I bet they're the ones who did the stealing." The red moblin declared, pointing his spear at the teenagers.

LInk glared. "If we were able to sneak in here and steal bombs from you guys, wouldn't we have been able to escape your prison too?"

"Silence human filth!" Moro the red moblin yelled.

"Hold on a minute, he does have a point." Haljo said, surprised his subordinate.

"Your Majesty, surely you cannot be taking these things seriously!" Moro objected.

"I'm not, but I can't fault what he said. If these two were indeed capable of sneaking into my domain, why would they not also be capable of sneaking out?"

"It must be a trap!" Moro stated.

Link leaned towards Romani. "Is it just me, or does that red one seem a bit defensive?" He whispered.

Romani nodded. "I know. It's like he's trying to make us some kind of scapegoat in a hurry."

"What are you talking about over there?" Moro shouted, unable to hear them.

Link fearlessly smirked, unsettling the moblin. "Oh we were just commenting about how strange it is that you're so desperate to pin the blame for something on us. It's almost like you're afraid of something."

Moro looked so enraged it was like steam was about to shoot out his ears. "HOW DARE YOU ACCUSE ME OF BEING AFRAID! I AM A MOBLIN! I FEAR NOTHING!" He then grabbed a nearby bomb, lit it, and threw it at the two teens. He expected them to die in the blast, but Link and Romani reached into hammerspace and pulled out their goron masks and put them on. The two caught the bombs and threw them back at the ogreish creatures, which exploded before contact but ensured they felt the greater force of the blast.

Their faces blackened, Haljo and Moro glared at their captives, and the Moblin King got on his feet. "Guards! Kill them now!" Several moblins appeared out of alcoves hidden in the high ends of the walls, armed with bombs.

"Got any ideas?" Romani asked.

"Just one, but we may have to wait a moment." Link said, trying to bat away the bombs being thrown at them. Romani followed his lead, and bombs went flying everywhere. Some collided with others, exploding right away and harming the two marginally but increasingly. Other bombs went at the walls and back at the moblins, the walls strong enough to withstand the blasts but the moblins not so much. Nonetheless, the assault kept coming.

Link curled up and started spinning around in place, building up momentum and only able to do so because Romani was defending him. 'What is he doing?' She asked herself. Suddenly Link burst forward towards the locked door they had to use to get into the room, which was only wooden and broke on contact right away. The moblins were stunned silent and immobile to see this but Romani smiled and immediately followed her boyfriend.

"Guards, after them!" Haljo's voice was heard as she ran down the hallway rather than roll down it. There wasn't enough room to corner when the hall changed directions.

Down the hall, there was a broken door, with Link standing outside it. "Romani, I fought where they took our stuff." He called to her. He found it by accidentally rolling thru the door, but she didn't need to be told that part.

Romani took off her mask. "Great." She and Link started reclaiming all their equipment that they generally kept directly on them rather than in hammerspace. This consisted of their swords, their shields, their bows and quivers, and their ocarinas. Their bomb bags, although usually kept in hammerspace, were in this collection due to them being used not too long before the moblins ambushed them. "Hey, our quivers and bomb bags are empty." Romani pointed out.

"We'll have to refill later. But for now we need to get out of here." Link said.

'Hey what's this?' Romani asked herself, seeing a leatherbound book lying on the floor by their equipment. 'No time to worry, I'll look it over later.' She grabbed it and put it in hammerspace along before securing her equipment was in place on her.

"I hear footsteps. We need to scram, now." Link whispered to his partner.

The two left the room and ran down the halls. Somehow, in their effort to evade the moblin guards, they ended up back in the throne room. Haljo stood on the lower level of the room surrounded by red and blue moblins, holding a bomb about as big as a powder keg. "I don't know what you are, but even gorons can't handle this one, the Titanbomb." He lit it and threw it at the two.

Link pulled out his sword, charged it with magic, and performed a spinslash. The attack repelled the large explosive and sent it flying away. It hit the wall of the room with enough force to become embedded, and it was still lit.

The moblins panicked. "RUN!" Haljo screamed before he and the others fled the room. Link and Romani followed them, knowing this would lead the outside.

By the time they reached the exit, the sounds of a really large explosion could be heard along with the crumbling of stone walls. The moblins got out first and scattered, while Link and Romani put on their goron masks and rolled away to safety moments before the fortress collapsed and became a pile of rubble.


	19. Subrosia 1

_I don't own Legend of Zelda. If I did the games would tie in together better and there would be a few different ones added in._

Part One: Oracle of Seasons

Chapter Nineteen: Subrosia Part One

"Do you see any sign of them?" Link asked as he and Romani were checking the area for any moblin pursuers.

"No not yet." Romani replied. "Shouldn't we be heading for the next shrine rather than worry some monsters are after us?"

"Our trip to the next shrine will go smoother if we know we won't encounter them later."

Romani sighed in exasperation. "True." She looked around some more. "Hey, does that look like something to you?"

"What?" Link curiously asked as he turned around and came up next to her.

"That over there, above that cave." Romani told him, pointing to a cave in the distance. Right above the entrance at the highest part of the hole, there looked like something carved into the rock. "I didn't see it earlier, but now that I do it looks weird."

Link tried to get a good look. "There's definitely something there, but I can't make it out from here."

'Make out?' Romani perversely thought with a small smile. 'Yeah, it's been a while since our last time.'

Her thoughts were interrupted by Link's next statement. "Should we get a closer look?"

Romani shrugged. "Not sure. Maybe we shouldn't and just held to the next shrine."

"In my experience, checking places out often proves profitable." Link countered. "That's how I got my mirror shield, my hookshot, several masks, my-"

"I get the point Grasshopper." Romani cut him off. "But if we have to fight another monster or get out of another trap, I have the right to say 'I told you so' until you hear me say it in your dreams."

"Who says I don't already hear you in my dreams?" Link quietly said.

Romani turned to face him so fast she almost got whiplash. "What?"

Link suddenly felt a little shy. "Uhh... nothing."

"No, not nothing." Romani said, getting closer, even holding his shoulders to keep him from trying to get away. "Did you really say you dream about me?"

"Is that really so surprising Ladybug?" Link asked. "You're my best friend and my girlfriend. What do you think I dream about? Don't you occasionally have dreams about me?"

"All the time. It's just weird to hear it." She admitted, suddenly feeling a little shy on the subject. "Come on, let's go check this out before you change your mind."

The two made it to the cave and saw the strange emblem up close. There were four lines that looked like slash marks radiating from a central point in four directions, each mark curved a little and the entire system contained in a square. It was clearly a sign that someone had some kind of connection to this cave. The question was who and how?

Knowing the only way to find out, Link and Romani ventured inside. On the inside it looked like any normal cave. There were a few sleeping keese hanging from the top so the two walked quietly, hoping not to be bothered by them. It didn't work, and the batlike creatures swooped down at them. A few sword swings and the surviving keese were kept at bay.

The deeper part of the cave felt warmer than normal, almost like Link was back on Death Mountain. The slope of the floor started to go downer, deeper into the earth. Then, it stopped, and all that was there was a pit. It strongly reminded Link of the route he took to get to Termina.

"I'm not going down there." Romani stated.

Link nodded. "I don't see any reason to anyway."

They turned around, but that was when a skultula chose to make itself known. The spider creature ended up hitting the two, making them stumble back. They tried their hardest to stayed balanced, but it proved futile and they fell backwards and down into the pit.

After a moment of falling down a pit so dark they could see nothing, the two landed on a hard floor. For reasons neither knew or could guess at, neither were harmed at all and both were conscious.

"Where the heck are we?" Romani asked, looking over the area.

Their surroundings looked like the inside of a mountain, the kind of place any goron would love to call home. Especially the Snowhead gorons because it was pretty warm. About as warm as Death Mountain, and neither teen had red tunics.

Romani pulled the collar of her blouse away from her neck. "It's really warm here. Maybe we should leave."

They turned around to see a wall, but it did not look climbable by anything except skultulas. "We may have to find a different way."

They walked down a flatted path, indicating someone had lived here once or maybe still did, and got a better look at their surroundings. There was virtually no plant life, not even bomb flowers, and what did exist here was dry grass and molds. There were stalagmites and stalactites around around, thought the ceiling of the cave was thankfully not low. There was a red glow everywhere illuminating the place, and since it was so hot here, Link could tell from experience where that red glow was coming from.

"Maybe we should put our goron masks on." He whispered.

"You think there are gorons in the area?" Romani whispered.

"It's not gorons I'm worried about. It's lava."

It didn't take long for them to reach a small gorge that had a slow-moving river of lava covering the bottom. Fortunately there was a stone arch covering the gap acting as a bridge, and it certainly didn't look like a natural formation.

"I think something lives here." Link stated as she crossed the bridge. He was proven even more right when they saw a sign posted on the other side of the chasm. Strangely, it was written in script both could read rather than a foreign dialect, and said 'Caution, magma not meant to be used for recreational purposes'.

Romani grimaced. "What bothers me the most is they wouldn't have to put a sign here unless someone _did_ try to use the lava for fun. Hard to imagine a goron doing-" She was cut off by the sharp sound of a rock being thrown at another rock.

Acting on reflex the two warriors pulled out their swords and shields and stood back to back. They saw nothing except a lot of large rocks and elevated portions of the ground, creating a sort of walkway thru the area. Scanning the area, they heard and saw nothing new.

"Something's out there." Link whispered. "That didn't sound like a rock falling naturally."

No later than two seconds after he said that, they saw a small rock slightly too big to be considered a pebble fly at him. His shield deflected it.

"Something's throwing rocks at us." Romani whispered.

"We should probably get moving before they try something worse than rocks." Link whispered back.

"If you're going to do that, then do us a favor and go back where you came from." A quiet and somewhat squeaky voice like that of a talking rodent called out. Slowly from behind a rock a shadow was seen then the body casting it. The body itself couldn't be seen because it was covered up by a full body blue cloak, the only open part being for the face. Except the only thing that could be seen of the face were two bright yellow-white eyes. Hands could be seen holding what looked like a slingshot, and the hands looked like human-shaped rodent hands.

"Who or what are you?" Romani asked, having never seen or heard of a creature like this.

"My name is Jawa, and I'm a Subrosian. Are you two Overworlders?"

"Uhh... I'm a Hyrulian and she's a Terminian if that answers your question." Link replied, confused.

"Never heard of... whatever those are."

"Well we've never heard of a... Subrosian was it?" Romani asked.

"Yes, Subrosian. Native to Subrosia, the nation under the surface world." Jawa replied.

"There's a nation underground?" Link and Romani asked.

"What brings you two here?" Jawa asked.

"We got here by accident and don't know how to get out of here."

With the eyes being the only visible feature, it was hard to say for certain what the small creature was thinking. The posture and continued grip on the slingshot implied he still has his guard up. "And how do I know you aren't responsible for that strange building that appeared months ago?"

"Strange building?" The duo repeated, sounding confused.

"Yeah. Months ago, close to half a year, a building fell thru the ceiling of Subrosia and landed in the northeast region. It's taking up a lot of space and inconveniencing us quite a bit since it's in the way of our richest ore deposits. When we go near it, strange defenses act up. We're getting close to just bombing the entire thing once a caravan return from Overworld with proper explosives."

"I promise you we were not responsible for this. Though I must ask can we see the building?" Link asked.

Now Jawa looked mad. "Aha! Only someone connected to the building would want to see it. I don't know what your plan is, but we will not let you affect our land."

"Wait! You've got it all wrong." Romani insisted, but Jawa was in no mood to listen. He started using his slingshot, which seemed to refill it's ammo magically rather than by hand so the two were pelted with rocks as if the entire Kokiri tribe was attacking at once. Link and Romani had to use their shields to keep themselves safe.

"Intruders! Over here!" Jawa called out, and soon the sounds of approachers could be heard.

"We need to get out of here." Romani told her partner. "Cover me." She got behind Link and pulled out a bomb. 'I hope this doesn't kill them.' She thought as she lit it and threw it over Link. It landed behind Jawa as his reinforcements arrived. They saw the bomb and scattered, while Link and Romani put on their goron masks and got away from the blast too. They got hit by some of the debris but their goron bodies could withstand it easily.

In no mood for the Subrosians to catch up to them, the two gorons rolled down the first path they saw hoping it would take them away from the gathered natives. The path was obviously constructed since it was unnaturally smooth and road-like, and they both noticed it sloped downwards.

The two stopped when they perceived a staircase up ahead of them that descended. They looked down and saw the edge of a Subrosian village, not too unlike the villages of gorons at first glance. A closer glance also showed a resemblance to human villages like Kakariko or Horon, since there were shops and houses and decorations, but all made of stone and metal. Subrosians wearing cloaks of various colors and displaying unique decals like bows could be seen, and fortunately none were looking their direction.

"My gut tells me we shouldn't go down there if they're worried about outsiders right now. So where do we go?" Romani asked.

"That guy said the building was northeast, so we should head there. But where's northeast?"

"Don't you have a compass or map?"

Link looked thru his gear. There was a compass which was spinning around like it couldn't find north, and the map of Holodrum given to them by the goddesses shown nothing of Subrosia. "No luck."

"Then what do we do?"

"We only have two options. Either we explore until we find something, or sneak into the village at night and see if we can loot a working compass or map."

"Loot? Isn't that wrong?"

"Remember what I said earlier about getting most of my equipment? I didn't buy it all." Link told her.

"It still feels like just stealing."

"Would you rather try to go down there and buy something?" Link asked.

Romani shook her head. "Let's explore first. We might at least have some fun that way."


	20. Subrosia 2

_I don't own Legend of Zelda. If I did the games would tie in together better and there would be a few different ones added in._

Part One: Oracle of Seasons

Chapter Twenty: Subrosia Part Two

The exploration of Subrosia showed it wasn't much different than one would expect a subterranean world to be. In place of a sky was a high cave roof with many stalactites, some clearly broken off in the past, along with many crystals that looked like stars. Luminous gases from volcanic vents were high enough to provide a sort of thin cloud cover and light source, creating a strange sort of underground daylight. One could only imagine what any weather in Subrosia could be like, if weather even existed.

In regards to the terrain one could actually walk on, it was mostly a dry dirt and rock environment with many ridges, gorges, and stalagmites of various sizes. Red glows in the distances showed there were volcanic vents, and the heat of the area only heightened that along with the memory of a lava river. No signs of water had been seen yet, and plantlife was spare and barely green at all. Link did note that bombflowers were abundant, probably because of the lack of direct sunlight down here. As for animal life, so far all they had seen were various bugs crawling in the dirt.

"Not much to look at is there?" He asked.

"True, but we didn't come here for the scenery did we?" Romani replied.

"To be honest, we didn't come here on purpose at all."

"But we can't leave until after we know for sure if Din's Temple ended up here."

"Hiding it underground would be the best place to do it, especially if this place isn't that well known to others." Link commented.

"Let's just hope no one's found it first." Romani added.

"Speaking of which, how do we find it?" Link asked. "We have no map and no guide for this place. Unless you've got an idea, we're going to have to do this the hard way."

Romani grinned. "That _was_ my idea."

* * *

Subrosia's landscape was full of paths that twisted and turned. Apparently the natives preferred to build into the terrain rather than over it, and judging by the steepness in some areas they were much more sure-footed than humans were. Luckily gorons were too, so the masks helped out a lot.

Too bad they didn't help out when they came across a chasm that was far too wide for any rolling goron to jump across. At the far end of the chasm was a large peak, not entirely uncommon here from what they've seen. The only way across was a stone bridge that looked too narrow for anything more than a Subrosian to go across single file.

"Guess we can't wear these for the moment." Link said before taking his mask off and becoming his normal self again. "Whoa, I think it's gotten hotter since we got here."

Romani took off her mask too and noticed the heat. "Yeah, it's like summer here. Are the seasons screwed up here too?"

"Can seasons exist underground?" Link asked, but then shrugged. "I guess given what I have seen in my life, it wouldn't be the weirdest thing there is in this world."

"What _would_ be the weirdest thing you've seen?" Romani asked.

Link led the way over the bridge, treading carefully in case something happened. "I don't know where to start. But I do know that inside the moon when I first fought Majora is definitely in the top five."

"Oh yeah, that valley with masked kids running around a tree, leading you to small challenges and a fight." Romani remarked.

"Trust me, it was weirder than it sounds."

They tried to cross the bridge quickly, but something underneath them started to rumble, making them stop in their tracks. Looking over the edge as best they could, they saw nothing but darkness obscuring the bottom of the chasm.

"Maybe it was just some wind." Romani suggested, sounding a bit worried.

"Let's not stick around to find out." Link offered, and Romani did not object.

Close to the end of the bridge, a swarm of keese erupted from under them, passing them but creating a lot of noise. It also made them both unsettled, certain the keese weren't the source of the odd noise, but likely trying to get away from it. Link knew it was a bad sign that the bat creatures paid them no attention; that could only mean they had something more important on their minds.

In no mood to find out what the keese were fleeing, Link and Romani chose to run off the bridge and not turn back. They didn't stop until a ridge of stone separated them from the gorge. When they did, it didn't look like anything was following them.

"So far it looks like Subrosia's a calmer place than most places I go to." Link commented.

"How so?" Romani asked.

"Fewer things to fight."

"Good point, but don't jinx us."

The rumbling then got louder and the ground started shaking, making the two fall to their knees. 'Wait, I recognize this.' Link thought, now sensing some familiarity here. It was exactly like when he was on Death Mountain on those years ago. He looked down the chasm to the peak, and saw an ash cloud come out the top of it.

Grabbing Romani's hand, he scrambled back to his feet. "We've got to go! NOW!" Since the Hylian boy wasn't prone to yelling, the Terminian girl knew far better than to argue with him when he did over something.

The two evacuated the immediate area swiftly, trying to find the Temple of Seasons and avoid the Subrosians. And now the volcanoes.

* * *

"How long have we been here?" Romani asked as they sat down by a campfire eating some saved food they had on them. Now that they felt they were away from any volcanoes, they felt they could take a break.

"I think three days now. Kind of hard to tell without any sun." Link answered.

"Damn. Worst part is I can't tell if we're going around in circles or not. Right now I really just want to get back above ground. Romani's feeling claustrophobic being underground so much."

'She must really be bothered.' Link noted. The ranchgirl had been falling out of her old habit of referencing herself in third person, but she slipped if she was stressed. He then took ahold of her hand. "We'll be fine. Trust me."

She smiled warmly at him and leaned in to kiss him. "If I didn't trust you I never would have picked up a sword all those years ago, Link."

He smiled but suddenly tensed and looked over her. "Did you hear something?" He whispered.

"No. Did you?" She whispered back.

"I think someone's nearby. We should get going." Link said getting up. Romani followed and they left right after throwing dirt on their fire. After they hid behind some rocks they heard voices.

"They were here. Overworlders." One Subrosian said.

"They can't be far. The resin is fresh and the smoke was apparent moments ago. They must be aware we're on their trail." A second one added.

"Goron time." Link said as he and Romani pulled out their masks and became gorons before rolling away quickly. They didn't know just what the Subrosians had in mind for them, but they had no interest in finding out.

They rolled in a frenzy in unfamiliar territory, not a good idea as they still had a hard time controlling their rolls like a true goron could. In their hurry Link ended up bumping against Romani and both fell over a cliff edge. They fell about forty yards and landed in a shallow lava river, which gorons are fortunately not hurt by.

"Hey, that's odd." Romani said, pointing to a staircase carved into the other cliffside. "The natives must need to access lava sometimes for some reason. I wonder why."

"Don't know, don't care, just glad to have a way back up." Link said before he got to the stairs. He may have the body of a goron, but he still had the mind of a person and people don't like standing in red hot magma.

The two climbed up and reached the other side of the small chasm. There didn't seem to be a bridge so it was unlikely any Subrosians would follow them.

"If we find a way out of here before we find the temple, I'm taking it." Romani stated.

"I'm not going to stop you." Link told her, knowing such a thing was futile.

* * *

It took two more days before they found anything of interest. Fortunately, that thing of interest was exactly what they had been looking for.

They saw a large white building that had no business being underground, something that looks like the Temple of Time but built of alabaster stone rather than granite. There were no windows on the front, blue and red tiles on the roof surrounding what looked like a large stone gazebo on top, and four towers, one at each corner. Also the whole thing was covered with a great deal of dust obscuring most of it's color.

"That's it." Link said, no doubt in his mind. "Din's temple."

"I bet it looks nicer when it's clean and in sunlight." Romani commented.

"Well we didn't come here just to look at it." Link said, starting to climb down a ledge since the temple was in a basin. "Somewhere in there we'll learn how to use this rod and help Din."

"Then we can finally get out of here. I miss being out in the sunlight." Romani insisted, her ranchgirl nature showing. Link smiled and helped her down, which didn't take long.

Fortunately the door wasn't locked or even closed, but the two didn't think anything of it. They went inside and found it was a lot like a castle or the Temple of Time. One massive yet overall empty room, probably used to hold visiting groups or just connect the wings. On the walls to their left and right they saw two large wooden doors, each embroidered with a plaque and symbol that Link and Romani took to indicate the different seasons. There was an orange plaque with a sun symbol to the far left, a yellow plaque with a vertical line and three dots on both sides to the far right, a green plaque with a four petal flower symbol to the near left, and a purple plaque with a hexagonal ring to the near right. On the far end wall there were three smaller doors that were undecorated. Like on the outside, there were numerous pillars built into the walls, either as decoration or load-bearing beams for the walls.

"Please tell me this place isn't set up like the other shrines were." Romani complained.

"Well we can still hear. That's a good sign." Link commented, making her smile and nod. "So which direction? I usually just go for the clear route first."

"Then I guess we try one of these seasonal doors. How about... winter? The one we started with?" Romani suggested.

Link nodded and the two went to the door marked with the purple plaque, since purple seemed like the 'coldest' color here. They opened it and saw a room as big as their old house at Romani Ranch had been, but it was far less organized. There was debris scattered all over the room floor. Books, shelves, boxes, unbound papers and brushes, even a framed painting were everywhere like mere klutter.

"What happened here?" Romani asked. "Did this stuff all fall when the temple sank?"

Link knelt down and looked closer. "No, the shelves don't look broken, the books don't look damaged, and the painting isn't torn anywhere. It looks more like someone moved everything around in here but didn't care how they did it or enough to put anything back."

Romani looked closer too. "You're right. In fact, only the walls and floors appear to actually be damaged with just scuff marks. What do you think that means?"

Link stood back on. "It means someone has already been here. Or still is."


	21. Maple

_I don't own Legend of Zelda. If I did the games would tie in together better and there would be a few different ones added in._

Part One: Oracle of Seasons

Chapter Twenty-One: Maple

"Where is it?" A young lady asked herself as she looked over another room that apparently didn't contain what she was seeking. "It has to be here somewhere. Where else would it be? My crystal ball can't even find the rod."

The crystal ball in question suddenly hummed in her hands. Focusing a little magic into it, the possessor saw a boy in green and a girl in white and purple walking thru the hallways. "So others have shown up here too? Well I'm not letting them get to my treasure first. The Rod of Seasons is mine."

* * *

"Din's going to have a hard time cleaning this place up when she gets back." Link commented as he waded thru the overturning shelves and broken vases found in one of the halls of the temple.

"Do you think the natives have already been here?" Romani asked.

"Not sure. But someone has been here before and for all we know they still are. We should be careful."

Neither one of them noticed there was a shadow behind a pillar in the room, mostly because neither were looking in that direction. But the source of that shadow was certainly looking at them.

Suddenly the floor trembled, implying something dropped onto the ground behind them. Both teens turned and saw something that looked like giant skull surrounded by fire and smoke, much like the ghoulish things Link had seen before in past temples.

Neither Link and Romani were frightened by the apparition, used to this by now. Link jumped forward sword ready and slashed down the face of the spectre. It quickly dissipated and revealed a paper doll.

"Huh?" Both asked, not expecting that.

A moment later, another creature showed up, coming from the giant doorway they entered the room from. This creature looked like a devilish fish swimming thru the air. Romani took out her hookshot and shot at its eyes, hitting it and making it dissipate and reveal a paper doll just like before.

"Someone's using magic to scare us away." Link concluded. He pulled out his lens of truth once a third creature appeared. His eyes told him it was some kind of bat monster, but his lens showed it was another piece of paper with an illusion attached. Luckily, his lens caught a glimpse of someone around the corner once it came out. "Follow me."

Moving around the third apparition, Link and Romani returned to the doorway, Link having his arrows out. He saw someone try to fly away and hide behind another corner, but he charged up an electric arrow and fired it at in front of this person. The arrow hit the wall and a large amount of electric burst out, hitting the mystery person but only stunning them.

Link and Romani approached them, seeing a girl their age dressed in a dark purple dress with a dark purple hat and a reddish-brown bag on her right side. Her hair was green and cut short and she had been riding a broom. "Owie that hurt." She said with clenched eyes as she rubbed her sore muscles.

"Is she a witch?" Romani asked.

She saw them and jumped to her feet, pointing her finger accusingly at the couple. "You, give me the Rod of Seasons. I, the great witch Maple, must have it."

"And why is that?" Romani asked defensively.

"That's none of your business. Give me the rod."

Link shook his head. "No."

Maple blinked in surprise. "Did you just tell me... no?"

"Did I stutter?"

"Big mistake boy. I could have destroyed you at any point, but I chose to simply scare you off and give you and your girlfriend a chance to live longer. Now, no more Miss Nice Witch." She declared, holding her broom like it was a weapon.

Link and Romani held out their swords and shields. "Two against one, the odds aren't in your favor." The Terminian ranchgirl told the young sorceress.

"Then how about I get some numbers of my own?" Maple asked before pulling out a red pellet and throwing it on the stone floor of the temple. A large red smoke cloud appeared but thinned quickly, and when it did there were four Maples instead of one. "Still like fighting two against one?" All four said.

Romani put away her sword and pulled out a mask. "Let me handle this Grasshopper." She put it on, and suddenly there were four of her, but three of them were deku, goron, and zora instead of human.

"What the heck?" The Maples asked.

Human-Romani grabbed her sword and sliced one Maple's broom. Deku-Romani used a spin-strike combined with a deku nut to take down another. Goron-Romani simply pushed down the third Maple, and Zora-Romani used her fins to hold the last Maple in place. "What was that about being able to destroy us at any moment? Looks to me like you've got no actual fighting skills." Human-Romani asked.

Suddenly the four Maples shrink and turn into nothing more than tuffs of hair wrapped in a ribbon.

"She used a decoy?" Link asked. "She must have used the smokescreen as a cover."

Human-Romani took off the Four Mask, making her doubles disappear and returning her to normal. "I must be right. She can trick and deceive but she can't actually fight. Why else would she run off like that?"

* * *

"Those guys are too much for me to handle head on. I need to prepare a proper trap if I'm to be rid of them." The teenage witch told herself as she flew down a hallway on the opposite side of the temple. She came to a stop in an empty part where the light was dimmed, making the rest of the hallway obscured in shadow.

"This should be good enough." She started drawing a pentagram on the floor. "If I lead them here, they'll be trapped and at my mercy. Then I can get the Rod of Seasons and Grandma Syrup will finally declare me a full-fledged witch, no longer an apprentice."

"You seek the Rod of Seasons?" A booming voice called out to her, making her stop her drawing.

"Huh? Who's there?"

"Did you enter this temple hoping to acquire the treasure instead it?" The voice asked again.

"That depends, can you tell me where it is?" She replied. She looked down the dark part of the hallway where she was certain the voice was coming from, only to see a mouth shimmer into visibility.

"Such a thing is not something that can be given to anyone." The mouth said as eyes started to become visible too. Maple started to get worried. "By order of Din, I must eliminate those that seek to rob this temple."

From the darkness emerged what could only be described as a floating gorgon's head. Maple shrieked. "A temple guard? The Oracle left one behind?" 'Of course she did you stupid stupid girl. Did you really think she'd let her greatest tool remain unprotected?' She scolded herself mentally.

The gorgon head approached her swiftly and tried to bite her. Sheer adrenaline was possibly the only reason Maple managed to dodge the attack and hop on her broom before hightailing it out of there. Too bad the fiendish thing followed her.

"STAY AWAY!"

* * *

"Did you hear that?" Link asked, turning around.

"I thought I heard a shriek." Romani told him.

A few seconds later they saw Maple harrowing towards them with no intent to stop. "GET OUT OF HERE!" She shouted as she darted past them.

"Wait! That's-" Link tried to shout, only to hear a crash. "...a dead end."

The gorgon head appeared. "More intruders. You have be dealt with as well." It opened it's mouth and a ball of dark magic started to form inside.

Link already had a good idea what this was, so he grabbed his bow and fired an arrow. The arrow hit the top lip and the fiend quivered a bit. "Ok, it's not a fake." He managed to say just before the magic fired from the mouth creating a dark energy beam that hit none of them thanks to their experience in dodging enemy attacks.

The gorgon head looked mad. "I will eliminate those that threaten Din."

Link got an idea and pulled out the Rod of Seasons. "See this? We work for Din, not against her."

Maple was mildly stunned. 'So they did have it.'

The gorgon was less than impressed. "Thieves!" It shouted, all the snakes hissing in anger. "Die!" It got ready to fire one more attack.

"Romani, stone." Link told his girlfriend as he readied another arrow.

The redhead nodded and got next to the blonde Hylian, readied her bow and arrow too. They both fired and hit the left and right cheeks of the ghoul, these arrows being stone arrows. The creature began to petrify, and fired its attack before it turned completely into stone and collapsed on the floor, shattering.

The attack would have hit Link and Romani this time, and possibly killed them, except Maple jumped up and cast a spell to move the stones of the walls to block the hit.

"Wow, thanks." Romani told the green-haired girl.

Maple smirked. "If you really want to thank me, give me that rod."

Link shook his head and put it away. "Something doesn't feel right."

"What do you mean?" Romani asked.

"That thing wanted us to think Din left it behind to protect this place in her absence. Tell me Romani, did that look like the kind of thing Din would use?"

"Maybe she wanted an intimidating guardian."

"Maybe, but my gut tells me Din had nothing to do with that thing. Maybe it was a trap."

Before more could be said, the room started to get lighter, like an unseen light source had just been lit. The walls of the hallways shimmered and phased away, soon replaced by the walls of a completely different part of the temple. One that hadn't been damaged yet.

From the four walls emerged four women in elegant dresses, one wore green, another wore yellow, another wore orange, and the last wore blue. "Thank you for destroying the beast Link and Romani. You are right in it's origins, Din did not place it here. Onox did to deceive those that would come here for Din."

Link gasped. "You're the goddesses of the seasons."

They nodded. "You have already met me. I am Harumi, Goddess of Spring." The one in the green dress said.

"I am Natsumi, Goddess of Summer." The one in the yellow dress added.

"I am Akimi, Goddess of Autumn." The one in the orange dress added.

"And you know me, Fuyumi, Goddess of Winter." The one in the blue dress finished.

"Can you help us understand how to use the Rod of Seasons?" Romani asked. "You've helped us regain half of it's power but we don't know how to use it."

"The Rod of Seasons is unlike most of the magic objects you already possess, and yet it is similar once you understand how to use it." Harumi started.

"You must be in tune with the Earth, Din's element, and sense the disturbance of the land. Feel the offset, and use the rod to correct it, or improve it, but not to corrupt it." Natsumi continued.

"It will take practice, but with it you will learn how to improve the nature around you." Akimi added.

"Use your experiences to get started, and go from there to get the correct reasons." Fuyumi concluded.

"That's it?" Link asked. "Can't you help us get the rest of its power now that you're all here?"

"We can not." Akimi told him. "Our shrines are still in need of your assistance. We can appear here, but appearing is all we can do until you free our shrines of evil."

"My shrine is the one you must head to next. There you will have the opportunity you need to practice with the rod." Natsumi told them.

"We will take you directly there, so you don't have to worry about escaping Subrosia on your own." Harumi stated. She and Fuyumi glowed, and before anyone could object, they felt the use of warp magic, then found themselves outside a shrine entryway.


	22. Sunken City

_I don't own Legend of Zelda. If I did the games would tie in together better and there would be a few different ones added in._

Part One: Oracle of Seasons

Chapter Twenty-Two: Sunken City

"Where are we?" Maple asked, not seeing anything she recognized.

Romani looked up, saw blue sky with the sun and some thin clouds, and smiled. "I don't care. We're not underground anymore."

"Yeah but it's still hot." Link said as he wiped some sweat out of his eyes.

"It must be summer here, so we're close to the next shrine."

The immediate area revealed they were on uneven land, likely a mountainside. It was lush and covered with grass, bushes, and trees were spread out, and the roar of a river could be heard even if not seen.

Romani turned to Maple. "You're a native of Holodrum, do you have any idea where we are?"

Maple frowned. "I haven't gone everywhere, and most of the places I have been were seen from the air so this isn't immediately familiar to me." She then lightened up a bit and looked around. "But the river and scenery make me think we're in the east and away from the ocean, closer to the mountains. If we're lucky, we could be near Sunken City."

"Sunken City?" Link and Romani repeated questionably.

Maple nodded. "It's a town in the northern part of Holodrum that's permanently flooded. I think it was because of lousy irrigation planning long ago, but the problem never could be fixed. So instead the village is actually designed to deal with the excess water. You'd understand it better if you actually saw it."

"Why didn't the inhabitants just leave the area?" Romani asked.

Maple shrugged. "Search me. Maybe there's something in the water."

Link pulled out his map of Holodrum. "Better start searching."

"How about we go to Sunken City and ask people if they know where it is? And while we're at it restock on what we can get?" Romani suggested.

Link smiled. "Not a bad idea."

Maple rolled her eyes. "You two aren't going anywhere without me."

"We're not giving you the rod." Romani reminded her.

"Then at least give me the chance to see how it works. Besides, how exactly are you two going to learn how to use a magical artifact without a magic expert around?"

"We use magic tools too you know." Link said.

"Like what? A couple of magic arrows? Those are toys compared to the Rod of Seasons." Maple stated.

"And how would you know?" Romani challenged.

Maple smirked and put her hands on her waist. "I'm a witch. I know magic better than you know your swords. And the Rod of Seasons is a particularly interesting subject to me. I probably know more about that little wand than anyone else in Holodrum except for the oracle herself of course."

Romani stood face to face with the smug spellcaster. "Well we were the ones chosen to use the rod and rescue Din, so I think that's a clear sign we can do more than you think."

"Well you're going to need to know more if you want to defeat something strong enough to put an oracle in danger."

"If you know so much then prove it." Romani ordered.

"I'd be happy to, if you'd just let me have the rod." Maple claimed.

"We told you no." Romani repeated.

"Uh girls?" Link interjected, getting both irritated women to look at him frowns still on their faces. "Maple, the rod rightfully belongs to din. She entrusted it to us to help her. We can't give it to you because it's not ours to give away. Romani, if she can help us we should give her a chance to prove it, but yes not for the price she's asking."

Getting the message Maple sighed. "Alright, for now I'll drop the subject. But can I at least see the rod at work? Is that too much to ask?"

"I suppose not." Link said, holding the rod trying to remember the instructions for it. 'Be in tune with the earth, and sense the disturbance of the land. Yeah, that's easy to do.' He thought sarcastically. 'Maybe it's not that complicated. When I need an elemental arrow, I just think about what element I want the arrow to be. What if I think of the season I want while holding the rod?'

Closing his eyes Link tried to think of something other than summer, and then he felt a strange sense of energy from within the rod. Reacting no instinct, he waved it like a flag, and in moments the area went from summer to winter.

"Wow, how did you do that?" Maple asked, impressed.

Romani shivered a bit, not expecting the sudden chill. "Why did you make it winter?"

"You said it was really hot so I thought I'd make it colder. Also, this way we'd know it actually worked." He explained.

"Could you make it spring instead?" Romani pleaded.

Link nodded and thought about spring, then waved the rod and the snow went away, replaced with flowers and a comfortable temperature.

"Cool, you can switch between a field of snow and a field of flowers in the blink of an eye." Maple noted. "You could even ski and fly kites in the same day if you wanted to."

"This isn't a toy. We're trying to help Din and Holodrum, not be on vacation." Romani told the witch.

"Alright, alright, but you gotta admit it's got potential for a lot of fun." Maple responded. 'Once they drop their guards I'm taking that rod and will be long gone by the time they even know it.'

"So which way is Sunken City?" Link asked, looking at the map again but unable to verify their exact location.

"Hold on." Maple said before getting on her broom and flying high up, trying to get a birds eye view. After about twenty seconds she came back down but hovered rather than landed. "It's that way." She said, pointing to the east. "I'd say it's less than an hours walk from her if you take the road."

"Then let's go."

* * *

All Link and Romani could say about Sunken City when they got there was that the village certainly lived up to its name. In the words of a famous poet neither teen could remember the name of, there was water water everywhere.

There was a cliff to the north of the village with two waterfalls coming over in on opposite ends, both wide and loud. The water from them sort of pooled in a low basin before going over a cliff to the south of the village, showing that this part of the mountain was shaped like a shelf or staircase with the village on the middle section.

The town itself was different than any the two heroes had ever seen before. Most of the buildings had platforms around them so people had places to stand outside and some buildings were built on thick stilt-like beams so water could pass under them. There were a number of bridges and boat ports, with mangrove trees growing in some spots and lilies everywhere. One odd thing you had to really look carefully to notice, all the windows were on the southern side of the buildings, facing downstream if you will. Probably to ensure that if a flood came it would be less likely for water to get in the buildings that way.

"It's strange, but in a unique way beautiful." Romani said as she saw it.

Link nodded. "Well we didn't come all this way just to look." He headed into town and the two girls followed. Fortunately there was a bridge so they wouldn't have to swim to get inside the village

The first person they came across was a man wearing galoshes and a wide-brimmed hat who was using a strange metal rake to shift thru the ground in the water. He heard them on the bridge and looked to them. "Wow, we don't usually get visitors. What brings you to Sunken City?"

"We're trying to find the Summer Shrine. Do you know where it is?" Link asked.

"Summer Shrine? No idea, but the headman here might. He'd be in the building with the red roof if you want to ask him." The raker said before returning to his work.

"What are you doing? Farming?" Romani asked since his actions reminded her of when she tended plants back at Romani Ranch.

"No, I'm trying to find some valuable minerals. The water brings them in thru the current and they settle in the ground throughout town so we make a good living mining for it if you don't mind being knee-deep in water all day."

Maple smiled. "Ah, that explains why they live here."

The three teens went back to looking around. The building with the red roof was surprisingly easy to find since all others were blue or beige, though to get to it they had to go thru the water. Link and Romani settled for their zora masks while Maple flew on her broom. The door was closes so Link, human form again, knocked. "Hello?"

The door opened and there stood an old man in a blue cloak. Link was immediately reminded of the medicine man back at Lake Hylia, only this guy was fatter. He also seemed to be a bit surly. "Yeah what do you want?"

"He heard you know where the Summer Shrine is."

"So?"

"Could you tell us where it is if you do?" Link pressed politely.

"Why should I? What's in it for me?" The man asked.

"The seasons will return to normal again." Romani answered.

The man rolled his eyes. "Big whoop. I've survived plenty, I'll surely survive some bad weather." But he then got a strange gleam in his eyes. "But maybe I can be convinced to give you that information."

Maple looked skeptical. "How do we know you even know where the shrine is?"

"You'll just have to take my word for it dear. If you want me to tell you anything, both girls will have to come in here first. The boy should remain outside."

Maple frowned. "Oh hell no!"

Romani nodded. "Sure, I don't mind."

"What?" Maple asked.

"Trust me, everything will be fine." Romani said with a smile. The fat man let her come in then locked the door behind her.

Maple grabbed Link's collar. "Why didn't you stop her?"

Link was unaffected. "Romani can handle herself just fine without me. I have faith that she can handle this just fine."

A moment later there was a scream in the house. Maple looked horrified and angered. "I knew that creep would try something funny." She got on her broom and started to prepare an attack spell, but just before she could fire it the door opened and Romani calmly strolled out, sword in her hand. 'Wait, she's fine?' Maple thought. Unable to stop the spell, she redirected it so it fired off into the distance, striking somewhere in the forest.

"I knew you'd be fine." Link told his girlfriend.

Romani nodded and sheathed her sword. "The pervert was an idiot. Did he really think I wear all this gear for decoration? Once I showed him how pointy my sword really is he folded like paper and told me where to find the shrine."

"What if he made it up?" Maple asked, landing by the couple.

"It's the only lead we have. We might as well check it out." Romani told her. "He said it was upstream on the west side up the mountains. Follow the river and we can't miss it."

Link smirked. "Alright let's go find it." He turned to Maple. "By the way, that attack of yours won't do too much damage right?"

"It's mostly a blast spell. Not lethal but packs a mean punch." The witch stated.

"I just hope it didn't hit anyone." Link said. "C'mon, let's go."

Unknown to everyone else the Moblin King was face down on the ground in a crater shaped like his body and a large lump on the back of his head. His bag of bombs was cut open and a few bombs rolled out around him, and by sheer chance one of them had been lit by the surprise attack.

No one in Sunken City could explain the sudden explosion they heard that afternoon, but they agreed to stay indoors for the rest of the day. When they checked the area it had happened in the next day all the found was a crater that had hit a source of hot water, so they rejoiced that Sunken City now had a hot spring.


	23. Summer Shrine 1

_I don't own Legend of Zelda. If I did the games would tie in together better and there would be a few different ones added in._

Part One: Oracle of Seasons

Chapter Twenty-Three: Summer Shrine Part One

No stranger to climbing mountains, Link had a good idea of what to expect when heading to Holodrum's mountain range. However, the route Romani insisted they follow was a bit... steeper than he was used to. Steep enough that he had to walk bent forward to stay balanced.

"You two look ridiculous walking like that." Maple joked, watching from her broom above them.

"The only reason I haven't put on my goron mask is because we're so close to the river." Romani muttered to Link, not liking the slope either. To their right was one of the rivers leading back to Sunken City and to their left was a thick forest, giving them a narrow strip of open land to walk on. Rolling as a goron was indeed not a good idea at the moment.

"What if we use our zora masks instead?" Link offered.

Romani thought it over. "Tempting, but we could miss the shrine. The guy didn't say the shrine was right next to the river after all." A deku baba quickly grew off to her left but a quick sword slash took care of it before it could even try to attack, giving them an extra deku stick. "Just follow the river and we can't miss it."

"If that's it up ahead, I can see why." Maple commented from above, looking off in the distance ahead with her hand blocking the sun from her eyes.

"How far is it?" Link asked.

Maple leaned forward a bit to get a better idea. "Not exactly sure, maybe a mile at most."

Walking that mile sure felt like it was longer to them. It reminded Link of the time he had to go up Death Mountain, the slope making the distance seem greater because you had to fight gravity while you were walking. At least this time there were no rolling boulders coming from who-knows-where.

When they got to their destination they groaned. "Well, that explains why we couldn't miss it."

The shrine wasn't next to the river, it was _in_ the river. Much like the Water Temple of Great Bay Temple. The top part looked like a stone pagoda sticking out and it looked like the entrance was there, but the bulk of the temple was in the water, maybe even under the ground the river was atop. The entrance, if that truly was the entrance, looked like a circular hole with a mermaid carved into the stone designed to look like it was swimming around something. A ring of fish were carved in too around the mermaid. Right behind the temple was a waterfall coming from the mountains, which looked close enough that if Link and Romani threw a rock at them they could hit them from where they stood.

"I'm starting to notice a pattern here." Link commented. "Great Deku Tree, Dodongo's Cavern, Jabu-Jabu. Forest Temple, Fire Temple, Water Temple. Woodfall Swamp, Snowhead, Great Bay Temple. And now these seasonal shrines. Whenever I have to go thru a series of places to find or do something, the third place is always based in water. Every time."

"Wow, now that you mention it you're right." Romani replied. "Think it's just a big coincidence?"

"We'll know for sure on the next big journey. If the third place there is in water there's no way it's a coincidence."

Maple landed by what they presumed was the door. "I don't see a way to open this. Do you?"

Link and Romani used their zora masks to get thru the river and land on the alcove part of the shrine before returning to normal. "No, there's no handle or anything." Romani noted.

"That's not the only way to open a door in my experience." Link claimed.

"Well if you're so smart why don't you open it?" Maple challenged.

"I'm trying to think of how." Link told the witch. 'There's nowhere to put a key, and we weren't given a song that is connected to this place. The other shrines so far all had open doors we could just walk right in. Wait, does that mean...?'

"This may not be the way in."

"What?" Maple asked.

"Romani, the entrances to the other two shrines were already open. Why would this one be closed?" He asked the ranchgirl.

"I don't know. I assumed it had to be because of the water."

"Maybe it isn't. Let's look around the shrine first. This path we're on does appear to loop around it after all."

The trio went counterclockwise around the shrine, and when they reached the side facing into the river rather than away from it, they saw an open entrance with lots of water pouring into it.

"Told you." Link jested to Maple.

"I'm not going in there. It's bound to be flooded completely." Maple argued.

"No one said you had to." The Hylian boy reminded her.

"Fine, I'll just wait out here while you two go for a swim."

"You'll be waiting a while. We're told once you enter a shrine you don't leave until the first day of the appropriate next season. So you won't see us until the summer solstice then." Romani pointed out.

Maple shrugged. "I'll keep myself occupied. Just don't lose that rod." Without further ado she hopped on her broom and flew off.

Romani suddenly smiled. "I wonder if she didn't want to come in because of the water. She is a witch after all."

"Oh I don't think water makes witches melt. That's just a story." Link said.

"You sure? I mean, she was on edge the entire time we were in Sunken City." Romani pointed out.

Link got another idea. "Now that I think about it, Twinrova were in a rather dry environment. Maybe there is some validity to what you're saying." He then snapped his fingers. "Wait, there were two witches in Woodfall. That's a wet place."

"Tell you what, next time we see a witch let's get her wet and see what it does. Solve the mystery then." Romani offered.

Link shrugged. "For now, let's deal with this."

The two cautiously stepped into the opening, wondering where the floor was or how steep it was since they couldn't see it under the running water. To their relief it felt exactly like a descending staircase as they went in.

At the bottom of the staircase they had to stop, since there was no floor to step on. There was an empty circular almost tubular room with a pillar in the center, and a winding staircase wrapped around it. At the bottom there was a lot of water, and counting the way the two teens used to enter there were three waterfalls in this room pouring water into this reservoir. The top was concealed by a net with one hole in it big enough for a person to get thru, located right above the staircase.

"I don't see any doors or ways out of this room." Romani said. "And at least we can hear in this shrine."

"They're likely either above the net or under the water." Link suggested, referencing the doors.

"Let's stick to the dry end for the time being." Romani suggested, then took out her hookshot. On the pillar there was a familiar hookshot target symbol above the stairs, and as expected the hook connected and brought her over. "That sure takes a while to get used to." She said, referring to the pull of the hookshot and the slight whiplash that came when she stopped.

She stepped aside and Link followed, not complaining about the hookshot since he was more used to it than she was. The two walked up the stairs and reached the top. Climbing the net was quite easy and with little effort both managed to get on top of it. The space above the next was a dome, painted bright yellow like the sun, and it felt rather warm. But there were no doors, just two keyholes by a blue square.

"We search for keys, pretty standard in these sort of places." Link said.

"And the only place to go from here is down into the water." Romani added. "No big deal for us."

They went back down the staircase all the way to the bottom, which was a floating platform tethered to the railing. Obviously designed that way if the water level ever changed. The two looked around again, seeing if there was somthing here they couldn't have seen earlier. No such luck. So they put on their zora masks and dove in.

Under the water they saw a lot more. The first detail that stood out was an iron gate at the base of the pillar, but it was locked. A glance thru the bars showed a corridor down deeper until it was too dark to see. Other than that there were two hallways to go down, neither of which were blocked to them.

"Together or split up?" Link offered.

"Maybe this once we can split up. We don't want to get dependent on fighting together right?" Romani offered.

Link nodded, sensing there was also a request for privacy here. While the two did enjoy being together, after a while any one would want a few minutes to just themselves. Even these two.

Link went into the left hall and Romani went into the right one, both hoping they hadn't made a mistake going alone this time.

* * *

Romani came to a room filled with strange blue piranha. On reflex she activated her zora electric barrier when they came at her, killing them all.

'Glad I can do that. Though now that I think about it I've barely spent any time in my masked forms practicing what I can do in them. I should change that when this is over.' She thought.

With the water clear now Romani looked around to find where to go now. Now that she was free to notice, she observed that the room itself was shaped like a basin, or like an upside-down dome in terms of shape. There was no clear design on the walls and no doors to go anywhere else. The bottom was covered in small holes but at the lowest part there was a treasure chest.

Romani went down to open it, but before she could reach it numerous spikes shot out of the holes quickly, almost hitting her. She got away, taking only a small cut to her right ankle that bled blue blood. When she got a safe distance away the spikes retracted.

'This is going to be difficult.' She noted, using her hand to apply pressure to her wound.

A small rumble was heard and a hidden stone door that Romani had failed to notice before began to open. When it stopped, four green tentacles came out, but whatever they were attached to didn't want to come out or couldn't. The only other thing that came out was a dusty-brown beak-like mouth that looked like it had sharp teeth both inside and outside. (For Star Wars fans just picture a Sarlacc underwater and coming out of a wall)

The four tentacles came out for her all at once. Right away the young zora activated her barrier, hurting them and keeping herself safe. The mouth extended a bit as if to grab her itself but it didn't even come close to her. Before it retracted Romani fired off her zora fins like she had seen Link do. The two fins struck the 'neck' of the mouth from both sides, and the mouth yelled in pain swinging around like it was thrashing.

The tentacles made another grab for her and again she protected herself with her electric barrier. The mouth made another attempt to grab her itself and she repeated her attack on it's 'neck'. It worked and the creature thrashed around a little more.

The tentacles withdrew to Romani's surprise and the mouth retracted.

'Is it giving up?' She asked herself.

Unfortunately it wasn't. The mouth shot forward and spat out a cloud of ink much like an octopus, and the ink quickly darkened the water almost to the point where the ranchgirl-turned-zora couldn't see a thing anymore. Not only that, the ink in the water was making it hard for her to breathe.

In her discomfort one of the tentacles managed to grabb her and pull her towards the creature. Romani activated her barrier and again repelled the tentacle, and to her relief got rid of the ink immediately around herself, but nowhere else. 'I can see and I can breathe, but I can't keep this up for long. I have only one chance to finish this thing off before I run out of magic.'

Keeping her barrier up Romani swam like a torpedo right to the 'neck' and struck it head on. She bounced off but the creature took damage, and to her relief that was all the damage it could take. The creature screamed before pulling itself back into its little cavern in the wall and the stone door closed, sealing it away again.

'I guess that thing whatever it is isn't used to prey that can fight back.' Romani thought, until a new sound from below drew her attention. A stone pillar was slowly rising up with the treasure chest on it. Diving, she got to it and opened it out of range of the spikes. Inside was a key.

"One down, one to go."


End file.
